What is Accountability?
Each state sets academic standards for what every child should know and learn. Student academic achievement is measured for every child, every year. The results of these annual tests are reported to the public.

What is Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)?
AYP refers to the growth needed in the proportion of students who achieve state benchmarks of academic proficiency. Schools that fail to make AYP for two years in a row are considered in need of improvement; Those that receive Title I funds to improve learning for disadvantage students face a range of consequences.

What is Safe-Harbor?
A "safe" or modified form of meeting AYP - but only if a subgroup (such as LEP, Hispanic, Black etc.) which does not meet the target achievement goal in a content area but does reduce the percentage of students in the non-proficient category of achievement by 10%. The group not meeting the target MUST also meet other academic indicators. That is, 10% more of the students have to score proficient in a year following a year when AYP was not made by the subgroup. Safe harbor is applicable only if the total student population meets AYP.

School-Level Accountability
Each school's proficiency statistics in each area (reading and math) as well as total population and student subgroup performance will be compared to the statewide benchmark.

What is: Just Proficient Mean (JPM)?
This number represents the average (mean) number of points received by all students in the state whose scale scores are at 200 (the state cutoff score that separates students who are "proficient" from those who are "partially proficient"). There is a different JPM for each content cluster.

What are supplemental educational services? / School Choice?
The term supplemental educational services refers to extra academic instruction provided to students in language arts literacy and mathematics. This extra help must be provided outside of the regular school day. These services are offered to eligible students in schools identified in their second year of school improvement status.

What does the term "in need of improvement" mean?
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, every state must set the goals for adequate yearly progress (AYP) that each school must meet. New Jersey public schools that do not make AYP for two consecutive years in the same content area are identified as in need of improvement.

Test specifications
Test specifications have been developed for those content areas which are currently projected to be assessed. They are available for Language Arts literacy, mathematics, science and social studies. They will be revised after the revised standards are adopted.

Proficient
A score achieved by a student at or above the cut score which demarks a solid understanding of the content measured by an individual section of any state assessment.

ESPA (NJASK 3 & 4)
Elementary School Proficiency Assessment is used to determine cumulative achievement of the Core Curriculum Content Standards through fourth grade as measured by the statewide assessment system. ESPA Score—This is a scale score used to report the Language Arts Literacy, Mathematics, and Science section results. The score scale ranges from 100 to 300 with the Proficient standard at a score of 200 and the Advanced Proficient standard at a score of 250.

GEPA
March 1999 marked the first administration of the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA). The GEPA has taken the place of the Grade Eight Early Warning Test, which had been administered to eighth graders from 1991-1998. The GEPA is intended to provide information about student progress toward mastery of the skills specified by the Core Curriculum Content Standards in all seven subject areas. GEPA score is a scale score used to report the language arts literacy, mathematics, and science section results. The score scale ranges from 100 to 300 with the proficient standard at a score of 200 and the advanced proficient standard at a score of 250.

HSPA
High School Proficiency Assessment has replaced the High School Proficiency Test (HSPT) and is used to determine student achievement of the knowledge and skills specified by all areas of the Core Curriculum Content Standards and Workplace Readiness Standards. The HSPA will test all of the standards, and students must pass all sections of the test as one of the requirements for a high school diploma.