The New Jersey State Department of Education announced Wednesday that students high school through 2022 now will have the option of taking the ACT or SAT, rather than the state standardized test in order to graduate.
New Jersey's testing system for high school graduation has been a bit of a mess over the past few years. After adopting the Common Core curriculum, former Gov. Chris Christie's Department of Education implemented PARCC, a new testing system, which required students to take two standardized tests – one in English/Literacy and another in Mathematics.
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However, in 1988, New Jersey had adopted a law that required students to pass a standardized test, formerly known as the High School Proficiency Test, in 11th grade in order to graduate high school. The state law was never changed to reflect the new testing requirements, and in December 2018 the Superior Court Appellate Division shut down the PARCC testing mandate, ruling the new test violated state law.
State officials had moved to expand the optional standardized testing rules in February for the 2019 and 2020 graduating classes and expanded it on Wednesday to also include the 2021 and 2022 classes. It is unclear what the future will hold for 2023 graduates and beyond.
The state has made attempts to move away from the controversial PARCC exams. In October, the state's education department announced a new assessment exam that was shorter in length from the PARCC exams called New Jersey State Learning Assessment.
Still what is a "passing" score on the SAT or ACT. That's all explained here.
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