Education commissioner Schundler dismisses U.S. test ranking N.J. at the top in reading, math
By Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist
May 10, 2010, 6:30AM
New Jersey education commissioner Bret Schundler, left, with Gov. Chris Christie.TRENTON -- Good news is always bad news to those who see themselves as "reformers" — no sense reforming what works. So, as state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler begins an effort to change New Jersey schools, he must cope with the bad news of a lot of good news.
Best, or worst, of all are the latest results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, a testing program of the U.S. Department of Education. It shows New Jersey at the top in achievement in reading and math at the fourth- and eighth-grade levels.
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While New Jersey’s education officials might be expected to embrace good news, Schundler’s spokesman, Alan Guenther, dismissed the results as "irrelevant.’’Guenther lumped all of public education together as one "wretched system" that fails students. In an e-mailed response, he wrote:
"The NAEP rankings are irrelevant. We should not take solace in the fact that we score well in a wretched system that fails to adequately teach such a high percentage of children.’’
Not everyone agrees, of course. The assessment program is a widely regarded measure of educational progress and, in the past, critics of New Jersey public schools used a poor showing as the sort of bad news that was good news to reformers.
The usual suspects disagree with the state — the New Jersey Education Association, for example, and David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center. They