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SECOND QUARTER ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN EDUCATION 2003
Commissioner William L. Librera
April 1 to July 1, 2003

Governor McGreevey and Commissioner Librera have grouped the state’s educational initiatives into five major themes to be addressed:

-Teacher and administrator quality;
-Raising student achievement;
-Diverse and multiple paths for student success;
-Innovative and outstanding practices/programs; and
-Public engagement and communication and public accountability.

Teacher and Administrator Quality

The Department of Education has done the following:

• Announced new incentives for national board certification of teachers through a collaborative arrangement among Governor James McGreevey, the Department of Education, the Business Coalition of Educational Excellence (BCEE), New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). The state will match federal funds to cover the $2300 fee. The teachers will receive six graduate credits for certification to be applied to the salary guide to raise the teachers’ pay. A mentoring program provided by National Board-certified teachers is available to all applicants. The mentoring program is supported by the Business Coalition of Educational Excellence. Four state colleges will offer master’s degree programs built around the national standards – Georgian Court, the College of New Jersey, Montclair State, and Rowan University. The Department of Education has asked the State Board to adopt regulations that provide reciprocity for teachers from other states who are nationally certified and want to teach in New Jersey.
• Announced two new programs in the state’s alternate route system to address concerns about the lack of pre-service experiences and problems associated with the 20-day mentoring requirement in the original alternate route program. The first is a Master of Arts Teaching (MAT) that will be offered at New Jersey City University in the northern region and Stockton State in the southern. Both will provide satellite locations for increased access and convenience.
• The program will consist of a four-credit summer program that will provide experiences related to the initial needs of new classroom teachers to replace the 20-day initial mentoring requirements; a three-credit experience in the fall and spring semesters; and a three-credit summer experience following the first year of teaching. The year-long mentoring requirement will remain in effect.
• The second is the Community College Provider Plan developed in conjunction with the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association and New Jersey Association of School Administrators. This plan will feature a uniform curriculum at all community college sites. A major innovation will be an "Introduction to Teaching" pre-employment course that will begin during the summer to count for 45 of the 200 required hours for teachers in the conventional program.
• Unveiled the Home District Initiative under which the state will pay the full salary and benefits of the reading coaches who have completed the first year of the program if the coaches’ districts have one or more schools eligible for the coaching services. If there are no eligible schools, the state will pay half the salary and benefits so that the coach can continue peer training. In the first year of this McGreevey administration program, each coach was assigned to work in three different schools with a total of 30 teachers. Coaches worked directly with nearly 700 teachers with approximately 25,000 students benefiting from the program.
• Hosted with Governor McGreevey the seventh teacher town meeting at Paramus High School in Bergen County which allowed for a dialogue with teachers on a variety of issues.
• Sponsored a day-long preschool conference at Kean University. Abbott preschool master teachers presented 29 workshops to over 500 preschool teachers from the 30 Abbott districts on effective strategies for meeting the Early Childhood program expectations.
• Inaugurated a French Resource Center at Rutgers University to develop and conduct professional development programs for New Jersey’s French teachers and provide the latest materials and resources for the teaching of French from preschool through the university.
• Signed a memorandum of agreement with the Italian Consulate to promote the teaching of the Italian language and culture in New Jersey schools. The agreement includes the following components: an incentive program for Italian instruction in grades K-8, especially for districts with large Italian-American populations; a visiting Italian teacher program; professional development opportunities and exchanges; and development of a resource center for the teaching of Italian.

Raising Student Achievement

The New Jersey Department of Education has done the following:

Early Childhood Education:

• Developed the Abbott Preschool Program Implementation Guidelines and the Three-Year Operational Plan to begin in the 2003-04 school year. Representatives from the Governor’s Office, the Departments of Education Human Services, local districts, community childcare providers, Head Start agencies, professional education organizations, advocacy groups, parents, and other community organizations worked on task forces and committees to develop the research-based guidelines for all aspects of the preschool program. The guidelines will help districts to fully meet the Abbott mandates, as well as shape the district’s Early Childhood Program Aid Three-Year Plan and Budget.
• Offered a comprehensive year-long training for 105 master teachers who, it turn, train, mentor, and coached over 4,000 classroom teachers and assistant teachers in the Abbott districts. The course was designed to more clearly define the master teacher role, ensuring that they have the skills needed to foster change and improve classroom quality. The training focused on curriculum, including the research-based guidelines New Jersey Revised Program Expectations: Standards of Quality, and assessing classroom quality through the use of structured instruments, such as the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Revised (ECERS-R), Supports for Early Literacy Assessment (SELA), and Preschool Mathematics Inventory (PCMI).
• Convened early childhood experts and stakeholders to develop a self-evaluation tool for Abbott preschool programs to guide the development of improvement plans. The system developed is the Self Assessment Validation System (SAVS) designed to guide the preschool program through systematic self-appraisal and aid program improvement. The SAVS is derived from the NJ Program Implementation Guidelines, as well as the Guidelines for Appropriate Curriculum Content and Assessment in Programs Serving Children Ages 3 through 8 of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education. Early childhood staff met with Abbott districts in June to explain the purpose and process of SAVS.
• Launched the Early Learning Improvement Consortium (ELIC), a multiyear initiative, in which participating institutions of higher education (IHEs)assist the department and Abbott districts in identifying the particularized needs of preschool children and programs. The ELIC has collected and reported data on children and classrooms utilizing faculty from NJ IHEs to apply structured program evaluation instruments, such as the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Revised on 10 percent of district classrooms. The ELIC also administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test on randomly selected kindergarten students. The data will be used for program improvement.
• Developed a performance-based assessment (PBA) in conjunction with the Early Learning Improvement Consortium (ELIC) to be used in preschool classrooms and implemented over a three-year period of time in the 30 Abbott districts. The PBA is based on the latest research and fully aligned with the NJ Expectatins: Standards of Quality. Teachers learn how to observe children in the normal preschool environment on a regular basis, collect samples of work, and record observations. The data will be used to make adjustments to the learning environment where needed and enable an evaluation of young children’s skills statewide.

Standards:

• Proposed amendment of the Standards and Assessment code which contains the Core Curriculum Content Standards and the statewide assessment system. The amendments are designed to create greater flexibility for high school students to select courses and establish paths to a high school diploma that place a priority on demonstrating proficiencies in required content areas. The proposed revisions in the high school graduation requirements have evolved from the New Jersey Department of Education’s Standards and Graduation Requirements Forum, held in November 2002, and from extensive public testimony. Other amendments to this chapter will ensure that New Jersey conforms to changes in the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
• Held three regional conferences to raise awareness of the Amistad Commission’s charge to help the department to incorporate topics related to African-American history into the social studies curricula of New Jersey’s schools. The Amistad was a cargo ship that was taken over by enslaved Africans en route from Havana to the United States in 1839. Amistad is also the name of a recent law that mandates formation of a commission to make available information about the African slave trade, slavery in America, and the many contributions African-Americans have made over the course of United States history. The commission will work collaboratively with the Department of Education to provide information to local districts.

Assessment:

• Administered in May 2003 the new third- and fourth-grade language arts literacy and mathematics tests – NJ ASK 3 and 4. The assessment contract also requires the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to develop and score a fourth-grade science assessment beginning in spring 2004.
• Formed a partnership with the Coalition for Responsible Education Assessment, Testing and Evaluation (CREATE) and the Business Coalition for Educational Excellence (BCEE) at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, which includes nine pilot schools chosen for the New Jersey Performance Assessment Pilot Project. The project is a five-year program slated to begin this summer with a training session. It is centered on "performance-based assessments" that will complement the state’s traditional standardized tests. Performance-based assessments will be developed in all Core Curriculum Content Standards areas, beginning with math, language arts and science, and will include student projects, demonstrations, competitions and problem-solving tasks.

Health and safety:

• Adopted criteria under the No Child Left Behind Act that give children and parents in New Jersey an Unsafe Schools Choice Option. The first provision of the Unsafe School Choice Option Policy applies only to schools that are identified by the Department of Education as being persistently dangerous. The second policy provision, which applies to all schools receiving funds under the No Child Left Behind Act, provides school choice to any student who is a victim of a violent criminal offense, as determined by state law.
• Participated in launching the Fitness for Life Campaign to motivate public school students to adopt healthier and more active lifestyles. The department created a nine-minute video on fitness in collaboration with the New Jersey Council for Physical Fitness and Sports and New Jersey Network.

Overcoming achievement gap:

• Mediated an agreement with the Education Law Center that grants increased program flexibility based on determinations of educational effectiveness for over 40 percent of the Abbott Districts.
  Awarded 14 grants under the federal 21^st Century Community Learning Centers (21^st CCLC) program – six in the northern region, four in the central, and four in the southern with grant amounts ranging from $232,000 to the allowable maximum of $500,000. These funds will be used to increase the number of out-of-school-time programs statewide for students in grades 4-12 who attend schools with a high percentage of low-income students.
• The purpose of the 21^st CCLC program is to supplement the education of children who attend low-performing schools and live in high-poverty areas so that they may attain the skills necessary to meet New Jersey’s Core Curriculum Contend Standards. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 defines 21^st Century Community Learning Centers as centers which offer academic, artistic, and cultural enrichment opportunities to students and their families when school is not in session. A 21^st CCLC program provides participating students with academic enrichment opportunities that complement the regular school day and offer literacy and other educational services to the families of the participating students.

Diverse and Multiple Paths for Student Achievement

The Department of Education has done the following:

• Hosted regional meetings on the 12th Grade Pilot Program. The 12th-grade pilot program encourages high school seniors who have finished all graduation requirements to enroll in college-credit courses or seek volunteer opportunities, among other things, for both personal and intellectual growth. The 12th Grade Pilot Program is an initiative high on Governor James E. McGreevey’s and Commissioner of Education William L. Librera’s list of education priorities. The pilot program encourages districts to offer high school seniors a variety of out-of-school options, such as online courses and community service work.
• Surveyed 71 school districts that have the 270 schools in need of improvement and established that during the first year of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, 504 students transferred to other schools within their districts under the federal law’s school choice provision or selected other options provided by the districts/schools. The 504 students who transferred during the current school year represent 60 percent of the 835 transfer requests received by 21 school districts as of September 30, 2002. These 21 school districts that received transfer requests represent 30 percent of the 71 districts. Since this survey was conducted, the department also has reported that the number of schools identified as in need of improvement has been reduced to 211.
• Established the New Jersey Center for Character Education at Rutgers University, funded through a federal $2 million four-year grant to the NJ Department of Education, to assist the department, along with the public and nonpublic schools throughout the state, to meet one of the objectives in Governor James McGreevey’s 21-point education reform plan for New Jersey – To develop new initiatives to improve character education in our schools to help our children become productive, informed, and actively involved citizens.
• The center is currently working with ten collaborating local education agencies (LEAs) to develop model programs that use effective strategies and scientifically based research to improve character education. The ten LEAs, which serve as demonstration sites for this project, include: Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Woodbridge, Westwood Regional, Cape May County Special Services, Hunterdon Central Regional, Cherry Hill, Monroe Township and Highland Park.
• To date, the NJCCE has assisted the aforementioned LEAs in developing a needs assessment and self-study report using the NJDOE Indicators and Standards for Improving Schools process as a basis. In addition, the NJCCE is in the beginning stages of developing an Expert Evaluation Panel consisting of recognized national experts in the field of character education and social and emotional learning program evaluation, to plan and guide a four-year evaluation of the New Jersey Partnerships in Character Education program.
• In May of 2003, the NJCCE sponsored a statewide character education conference, Best Practices in Character Education: Creating Caring and Successful Schools for K-12 educators. During the conference, the NJCCE released the first-ever New Jersey Character Education Commission Report. This report was approved by Governor James E. McGreevey and is a key component of his Administration’s 21-point education reform plan. The report outlines the future of character education in New Jersey. Also during this conference, workshops highlighted research-based character education programs currently being implemented in New Jersey Schools. In addition, the NJCCE held a two-day planning retreat, An LEA Retreat for Dreaming and Planning, in July of 2003 to review program improvement reports and develop three-year strategic plans. Thus, nine of the ten LEAs have identified programs that are scientifically based for development of their character education programs and all are drafting their three-year strategic plans.

Innovative and Outstanding Practices and Programs

The Department of Education has done the following:

• Crafted a comprehensive Technology Plan, titled "Working Toward the Future with Our Children." The plan, which began taking shape in early 2002, sets four goals and outlines numerous ways to implement a sound technology program, both on state and local levels.

The four goals of the plan, which also includes what actions the DOE has taken to include technology throughout the curriculum in daily activities for students, teachers and administrators, are as follows:

Students will attain the educational technology and information literacy skills that will assist them in achieving Core Curriculum Content Standards and to succeed in the workplace in the 21^st Century;

Educators will attain the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively use educational technology to assist students to achieve the Core Curriculum Content Standards;

Students, teachers and administrators will have access to educational technology in all learning environments, including classrooms, media centers, schools, and other educational settings, such as community centers; and

New Jersey school districts will establish and maintain the technology infrastructure necessary for students and educators to access electronic information and to communicate freely via technology.

• Announced the first two of at least seven Renaissance Schools which is a program that incorporates small schools into the economic development of a neighborhood. The first is the Roebling Elementary School to be built in Trenton on the site of the former factory. The second renaissance school is to be located in Neptune where school officials plan to build a $35 million community school and a permanent home for the early childhood center. It will be located in a rehabilitated warehouse on the site. The Renaissance Schools program combines elements of Smart Growth with providing small state-of-the-art schools within the context of the larger community development in urban or older suburban areas.
• Announced in May the criteria for the Governor’s schools of Excellence Program that will provide awards of $25,000 each to schools that demonstrate significant improvement in a two-year period. The funds can be used for educational purposes to be decided by the school. The school will report to the Commissioner at the end of the school year on how it used the award and it will serve as a demonstration center for exemplary programs. A school can win once in three years.
• This program is sponsored by a partnership with Pepco/Conectiv and First Energy Corporation with a donation of $1 million each to fund the program. The negotiations for the program also involved the state Board of Public Utilities and Division of the Ratepayer Advocate. The criteria for winning the award include significant improvement in test scores and evidence of success in at least five of nine other categories.
• Announced in May a Partnership Grants program where institutions of higher education (IHEs) in New Jersey join with school districts in an important innovation. The IHE must submit a proposal describing the program and demonstrate how one-year support will assist in a multiyear partnership effort. The proposal must identify the partner school district, as well as other partners, and an explanation of how the effort will be sustained after the first year. Preferred areas for the innovative project include successful models of learning, a continuum of professional development; parent leadership, mentoring, literacy, math and science teacher recruitment, and programs for second language learners. Grants are for one year, will not exceed $85,000 and are provided through a $500,000 donation by Elizabethtown Gas to promote partnerships of schools and higher education to improve educational quality.
• Sponsored a conference entitled "Safe, Disciplined and Drug-free Schools Exemplary Programs Showcase" that exposed districts to exemplary science-based substance abuse and violence prevention programs identified by the United States department of education’s Safe, Disciplined and Drug-free Schools Expert Panel.
• Honored eight Star Schools and 50 Best Practices at the department’s annual June recognition event.
• Honored the first cohort of operational charter schools with pioneer awards and highlighted achievements of other charter schools that have received state and national awards. In addition, several corporate supporters of the state’s charter schools were recognized at the department’s first annual charter school recognition ceremony.
• Announced planned new career academies and workforce development programs at an event celebrating completion of the inaugural year for launching a series of new career-based programs. The planned career academies are as follows:

-Pershing will work with Jersey City Schools to create a career academy for finance;
-Merrill Lynch will collaborate with Trenton School District to create a career academy for finance;
-The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) will assist Trenton School District with a career academy for future educators; and
-Meridian Health will collaborate with Neptune Township Public Schools to develop a career academy for science and medical arts with emphasis on emergency management.

The planned workforce development programs are as follows:
-Merck will work with Linden Public Schools to develop a workforce program;
-Johnson and Johnson will work with New Brunswick School District to create a Bridge to Employment;
-New Jersey Resources will collaborate with Ocean County Vocational Schools on program development; and
-The Biotechnology Council of New Jersey will develop a program with Monmouth County Vocational School.

Public Communication, Engagement and Accountability

The Department of Education has done the following:

• Developed and received approval from the U.S. Department of Education for New Jersey’s Consolidated Accountability Workbook, as required by the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. This workbook provides detailed information on the state’s planned implementation of the critical elements required for approval of our single accountability system. Under this plan, the goal is to have 100 percent of our students achieving proficiency on state tests by 2014. In order to assure progress toward the goal, the state must create benchmarks for districts to meet; develop a plan for administration of statewide assessments and use of data for planning purposes; and enforce a system of rewards and sanctions.

The preliminary plan was framed by four over-arching goals:

Put students first;

Design an inclusive system, one that includes all students, schools and districts and is fair and equitable in that all are held to the same criteria;

Build on our existing systems by incorporating rigorous academic achievements standards and using data to drive decision-making;

Provide a coherent process of engagement to solicit input from key stakeholders.

The state’s plan includes the measures it will take to determine adequate yearly progress for schools that are identified as needing improvement.

• Launched the Network of Schools Web site as part of the department’s Web site. The network allows school districts to share descriptions of effective programs in three major areas: programs that have an impact on overcoming achievement gaps; special education reforms; and small schools concepts. The department wants to encourage and assist districts in sharing information on programs that work.

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