NJ Spotlight published the following article on January 8, 2014. To read the full article, click here.
NJASK UPDATED AS PART OF ONGOING TRANSITION TO COMMON CORE
JOHN MOONEY | JANUARY 8, 2014
Revised middle-school math exams alter profile of what students need to know in grades 6 to 8.
The move to online testing in 2015 may have grabbed most of the attention, but the state’s NJASK exams will also be seeing some more changes this spring, as the current elementary and middle school tests are brought into line with the Common Core State Standards.
The state has already started the phase-in of the new national standards, revising NJASK’s grades 3-8 language arts and grades 3-5 math sections. But it left intact the grades 6-8 math exams while the younger students had the necessary instruction.
Now it’s the turn of the middle-school math tests. Some content areas will be moved entirely to different grades. Ratios and relationships, for example, will be addressed in grades 6 and 7; mathematical functions more heavily weighted in grade 8.
“The idea was that the scaffolding of content was special for math, so we staged that implementation,” said Bari Erlichson, assistant education commissioner in charge of the testing.
“In 2014, we are finishing that transition,” she said. “NJASK will now be fully aligned.”