Historical public education information in New Jersey, 2011-2015

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Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

School choice in the U.S.

Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

This page contains archived information on New Jersey's public education system, primarily from 2011-2012, but also from other years due to the availability of data at the time it was written. For more recent information, view New Jersey's public education page.

The New Jersey public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards and superintendents. In 2012 New Jersey had 1,356,431 students enrolled in a total of 2,596 schools in 700 school districts. While the national ratio of teachers to students was 1:16, in New Jersey there were 109,719 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 12 students. There was roughly one administrator for every 288 students, compared to the national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average New Jersey spent $15,968 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it fourth highest in the nation. The state's graduation rate was 86 percent in 2012. This was the Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate reported to the United States Department of Education for all students in 2011-2012.

State agencies

See also: New Jersey Department of Education

The New Jersey Department of Education is led by the New Jersey Commissioner of Education. There are seven divisions or officers that fall directly under the Commissioner of Education, including: Student Services and Career Readiness, the Chief Innovation Officer, the Chief Performance Officer, the Chief Talent Officer, the Chief Academic Officer, Field Services and Administration and Finance.

The New Jersey State Board of Education has 13 members who are appointed by the governor with the consent of the New Jersey State Senate. Members serve six-year terms without compensation. The State Board of Education also includes a nonvoting student representative who is selected annually by the New Jersey Association of Student Councils. The New Jersey Commissioner of Education serves as the State Board of Education's secretary and official agent. As chief executive school officer, the Commissioner of Education is part of the governor's cabinet. As of June 2015, the Commissioner of Education was David Hespe.

The mission statement of the New Jersey State Board of Education reads:

“

Provide leadership to achieve excellence in New Jersey public education. Engage legislators, school administrators, teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders in formulating policies that enhance education, empower families, and broaden opportunities for students.

”

Regional comparison

See also: General comparison table for education statistics in the 50 states and Education spending per pupil in all 50 states

The following chart shows how New Jersey compared to three neighboring states with respect to number of students, schools, the number of teachers per pupil, and the number of administrators per pupil during the 2011-2012 school year. Further comparisons between these states with respect to performance and financial information are given in other sections of this page.

Regional comparison, 2011-2012
State	Schools	Districts	Students	Teachers	Teacher/pupil ratio	Administrator/pupil ratio	Per pupil spending
New Jersey	2,596	700	1,356,431	109,719	1:12.4	1:288	$15,968
Delaware	221	44	128,946	8,587	1:15	1:289.8	$12,685
New York	4,752	923	2,704,718	209,527	1:12.9	1:293.2	$19,076
Pennsylvania	3,181	784	1,771,395	124,646	1:14.2	1:334.6	$13,467
United States	98,328	17,992	49,521,669	3,103,263	1:16	1:295.2	$10,994
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey", 2011-12 v.1a. National Center for Education Statistics, "Table 2. Number of operating public schools and districts, state enrollment, teacher and pupil/teacher ratio by state: School year 2011–12" U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Demographics

See also: Demographic information for all students in all 50 states

The following table displays the ethnic distribution of students in New Jersey as reported in the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for 2011-2012.

Demographic information for New Jersey's K-12 public school system
Ethnicity	Students	State percentage	United States percentage**
American Indian	1,735	0.13%	1.10%
Asian	121,434	8.95%	4.68%
African American	220,238	16.24%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl.	3,153	0.23%	0.42%
Hispanic	305,026	22.49%	24.37%
White	693,416	51.12%	51.21%
Two or More	11,429	0.84%	2.54%
**Note: This is the percentage of all students in the United States that are reported to be of this ethnicity.

Enrollments by region type

See also: Student distribution by region type in the United States

Over 80 percent of New Jersey students attended suburban schools during the 2011-2012 school year. Though students in both Delaware and Pennsylvania were also most likely to attend suburban schools, the percentage of students who attended them was just over 45 percent. In New York, students were more likely to attend city schools than suburban schools. For more comparisons, look to the table below.

Student distribution by region type, 2011-2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
New Jersey	7.2%	80.8%	2.0%	10.0%
Delaware	13.4%	45.2%	17.2%	24.2%
New York	44.1%	35.3%	7.3%	13.2%
Pennsylvania	19.2%	45.7%	12.1%	23.0%
U.S. average	28.9%	34%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Compared to three neighboring states (Delaware, New York, and Pennsylvania), New Jersey had the highest percentage of students performing at or above proficient in math and reading in both fourth grade and eighth grade during the 2012-2013 school year.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
New Jersey	49%	49%	42%	46%
Delaware	42%	33%	38%	33%
New York	40%	32%	37%	35%
Pennsylvania	44%	42%	40%	42%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for New Jersey and surrounding states for 2012 and 2013.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State	Graduation rate, 2012		Average ACT composite, 2012		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
New Jersey	86%	First	23.4	20%	1521	78%
Delaware	80%	Third	22.6	14%	1351	100%
New York	77%	Fourth	23.3	29%	1463	76%
Pennsylvania	84%	Second	22.4	18%	1480	71%
U.S. average	80%		21.1		1498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation). **Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades 9–12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for New Jersey was lower than the national average at 1.4 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 1.4 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in New Jersey

As of June 2015, school choice options in New Jersey included: charter schools, homeschooling, online learning, private schools and a voluntary inter-district public school open enrollment policy.

Education funding and expenditures

See also: New Jersey state budget and finances

Breakdown of expenditures by function in fiscal year 2012
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), New Jersey spent approximately 24.7 percent of its fiscal year 2012 budget on elementary and secondary education. This was up 0.5 percentage points, a 0.2 percent increase in the share of the budget from fiscal year 2008, when the state spent 24.2 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary education. Over half of New Jersey's education revenue comes from local funding. State funding accounts for approximately 37 percent, and federal funding accounts for just over five percent.

Comparison of financial figures for school systems
State	Percent of budget (2012)	Per pupil spending (2011)	Revenue sources (2011)
			Percent federal funds	Percent state funds	Percent local funds
New Jersey	24.7%	$15,968	5.14%	37.06%	57.8%
Delaware	24.6%	$12,685	11.24%	59.59%	29.17%
New York	19.8%	$19,076	8.9%	40.27%	50.82%
Pennsylvania	18.4%	$13,467	12.74%	34.2%	53.06%
Sources: NASBO, "State Expenditure Report," Table 8: Elementary and Secondary Education Expenditures As a Percent of Total Expenditures U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Revenue breakdowns

See also: Public school system revenues in the U.S.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in New Jersey totaled approximately $25.7 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for New Jersey and surrounding states.

Revenues by source, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	Federal revenue	State revenue	Local revenue	Total revenue
New Jersey	$1,320,021	$9,521,328	$14,847,190	$25,688,539
Delaware	$202,501	$1,073,154	$525,263	$1,800,918
New York	$5,127,425	$23,189,453	$29,266,236	$57,583,114
Pennsylvania	$3,469,273	$9,309,365	$14,444,802	$27,223,440
U.S. total	$74,943,767	$267,762,416	$264,550,594	$607,256,777
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Expenditure breakdowns

See also: Public school system expenditures in the United States

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system expenditures in New Jersey totaled approximately $25 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for New Jersey and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
New Jersey	$22,686,943	$930,701	$1,393,507	$25,011,151
Delaware	$1,615,778	$184,094	$54,090	$1,853,962
New York	$51,203,701	$4,655,961	$2,680,715	$58,540,377
Pennsylvania	$23,541,287	$2,269,812	$1,477,788	$27,288,887
U.S. total	$520,577,893	$52,984,139	$29,581,293	$603,143,325
**Funds spent operating local public schools and local education agencies, including such expenses as salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs, but excluding capital outlay, interest on school debt, payments to private schools, and payments to public charter schools. ***Includes payments to state and local governments, payments to private schools, interest on school system indebtedness, and nonelementary-secondary expenditures, such as adult education and community services expenditures. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Personnel salaries

See also: Public school teacher salaries in the United States

Note: Salaries given are averages for the state. Salaries may vary between a state's urban, suburban, and rural districts and should be adjusted for cost of living. For example, a MacIver Institute study of average teacher salaries in 60 metropolitan areas found that salaries in New York City were the third-highest in absolute figures but 59th-highest when adjusted for the cost of living.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average national salary for classroom teachers in public elementary and secondary schools declined by 1.3 percent from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2012-2013 school year. During the same period in New Jersey, the average salary decreased by 3.2 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
New Jersey	$71,083	$69,523	$68,194	$68,797	-3.2%
Delaware	$60,724	$60,930	$59,779	$59,679	-1.7%
New York	$69,723	$76,464	$74,620	$75,279	8.0%
Pennsylvania	$66,035	$63,146	$62,965	$63,521	-3.8%
U.S. average	$57,133	$58,925	$56,340	$56,383	-1.3%
**"Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis. The CPI does not account for differences in inflation rates from state to state."

Organizations

Unions

In 2012, the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now assessed the power and influence of state teacher unions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their rankings were based on 37 different variables in five broad areas, including: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies and perceived influence. New Jersey ranked 7th overall, or strongest, which was in the first tier of five.

The main union related to the New Jersey school system is the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). NJEA is the largest education association in the state.

List of local New Jersey school unions:

• New Jersey Education Association
• Newark Teachers Union
• New Jersey State Federation of Teachers
• Perth Amboy Federation AFT
• Federation of Rowan College Educators
• Upper Montclair AFT
• William Paterson Federation of College Teachers Local 1796

Government sector lobbying

See also: New Jersey government sector lobbying

The main education government sector lobbying organization is the New Jersey School Boards Association.

Studies and reports

State Budget Solutions education study

See also: State spending on education v. academic performance (2012)

State Budget Solutions examined national trends in education from 2009 to 2011, including state-by-state analysis of education spending, graduation rates and average ACT scores. The study showed that the states that spent the most did not have the highest average ACT test scores, nor did they have the highest average graduation rates. A summary of the study is available here. The full report can be accessed here.

See also

• Public education in New Jersey
• New Jersey
• Education Policy in the U.S.