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Test scores

J. Ackerman Coles Elementary School · SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ
See how it ranks: all New Jersey schools by score · Union County schools by score

NJSLA, SY 2024-25

All grades, all students. % Meeting or Exceeding Expectations.
English Language Arts
76.8%
State avg 53.1%
District avg 71.4%
County avg 53.3%
+6.9pp since 2023-24
Mathematics
78.8%
State avg 41.6%
District avg 62.4%
County avg 39.0%
+2.4pp since 2023-24
Science
N/A
State avg 26.8%
District avg 42.5%
County avg 25.1%

What this means: On the NJSLA, New Jersey's statewide test, about 77 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 79 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New Jersey schools, those numbers are about 53 and 42. Reading and writing scores are up about 7 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 2 points.

BeatsExpectations

Demographically-adjusted score · methodology
Tier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
75.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
64.3%
based on NJ schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+11.1pp
above demographic expectation

What this means: About 75% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 64% typical for New Jersey schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among New Jersey's top nor bottom 10%.

BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →

By grade, SY 2024-25

School score vs state average per tested grade.
GradeEnglish Language ArtsMathematicsScience
SchoolStaten testedSchoolStaten testedSchoolStaten tested
Grade 378.5%44.9%10783.2%49.7%107N/AN/AN/A
Grade 475.0%53.6%10074.0%46.8%100N/AN/AN/A

2-year history

All grades, all students. J. Ackerman Coles   New Jersey avg

English Language Arts

52702023-2453772024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2576.8%71.4%53.3%53.1%
SY 2023-2469.9%70.5%52.5%52.2%

Mathematics

39762023-2442792024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2578.8%62.4%39.0%41.6%
SY 2023-2476.4%58.2%36.3%39.4%

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How to read these scores

What is NJSLA?
NJSLA is the statewide standardized test administered by New Jersey public schools.
What does "% Meeting or Exceeding Expectations" mean?
It is the share of students at the school who performed at grade level or above on the test, summed across the top two of four performance levels. A higher number is better.
What does 76.8% mean for English Language Arts at J. Ackerman Coles Elementary School?
It means about 76.8 percent of students tested at J. Ackerman Coles Elementary School performed at grade level or above on the NJSLA English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for New Jersey that year was 53.1%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in New Jersey, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
New Jersey Department of Education, New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (NJSLA). Per-grade per-subject Spring administration: ELA grades 3-9, Math grades 3-8 + Algebra I/II + Geometry, Science grades 5/8/11. School-level All Students subgroup from the NJDOE Statewide Assessment Reports. Headline metric is the cumulative 'Meeting or Exceeding Expectations' rate (top 2 of 5 ELA/Math levels; top 2 of 4 Science levels).
How often is it updated?
NJSLA is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.

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