As 2025 came to a close, New Jersey was set to join a long list of states that have abolished their graduation testing requirements. The state’s General Assembly passed a bill to end the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment (NJGPA), but the clock ran out on the legislative session before the state Senate could vote on its own version of the bill. 

Now, the bill has been pre-filed for consideration this year, setting the stage for an education fight that is emblematic of the nationwide controversy over academic standards. 

If the NJGPA goes the way of the dodo, only five states—Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia—will require students to pass a test in order to earn a diploma. That’s a far cry from the 25 states that used graduation tests back in 2012. 

The idea that students should meet a standard in order to earn a diploma should not be controversial. After all, a high school diploma should mean that a student has accomplished something, not just that he or she has shown up at school for a designated number of days over a designated number of years. 

Sadly, teacher unions and their allies have dumbed down public schooling to the point where many students are making it to high school, and through high school, without having mastered the basics. The unions would rather eliminate academic standards than help students meet them. 

New Jersey’s test is, admittedly, not a high bar to clear: It is pegged to 10th-grade reading standards and administered in the 11th grade. The math section tests students on topics up to and including Algebra I and geometry. One need not be reading at grade level or capable of advanced math in order to pass with flying colors. 

Still, many students are failing the test. In 2023, only 81% of test-takers passed in English Language Arts, and only 55% of them passed in math. 

And yet, when that cohort made it to their senior year in 2024, over 90% of them graduated. 

How are tens of thousands of unprepared students still being awarded diplomas? New Jersey has created workarounds for those who flunk the test. These students are permitted to retake the test, submit their SAT or ACT scores in place of a passing NJGPA score, or submit a “portfolio appeal” to the state’s Department of Education.

These weakened requirements aren’t enough for the state’s teacher union, however. The New Jersey Education Association has lobbied against “high-stakes testing” for years, seemingly forgetting that education is a high-stakes enterprise. Teacher unions have helped bankroll the campaigns of both state senators who introduced the most recent bill to abolish the test.

The state’s teacher union would rather not admit that the public schools are utterly failing to teach students to read and do math. So, instead, it’s backing the proposal to end the graduation test entirely. 

States should hold themselves—and their students—to higher standards. Unfortunately, teacher unions are pushing policy in the opposite direction.