New
Jersey Department of Education Accomplishments
SECOND QUARTER ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN
EDUCATION 2004
Commissioner William L. Librera
July 1, 2004
Governor McGreevey and Commissioner Librera have grouped the state’s
educational initiatives into five major themes:
-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 NJ Department of Education has done the following:
- Received a second three-year grant from the Wallace Foundation
to continue the State Action for Educational Leadership Project (SAELP).
SAELP II will enable the department to implement policy reforms achieved
under the SAELP I grant and continue to focus on strengthening school
leaders. SAELP is a consortium of national education organizations
led by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) that includes
the Education Commission of the States, the National Association
of State Boards of Education, the National Conference of State Legislatures,
and the National Governor’s Association. (5/04)
- Raised the passing scores on tests that prospective teachers must
pass in order to obtain state certification and also established
new tests for middle school teachers to ensure that they are highly
qualified in every subject they teach. (6/04)
- Sponsored another in the series of county teacher town meetings
in Union County. Teacher town meetings provide an open forum for
teachers and other educators to question the Governor and Commissioner
on a wide range of educational topics related to the state’s
education reform agenda. (5/04)
Raising Student Achievement
The New Jersey Department of Education has done the following:
- Adopted academic standards in six content areas of the Core Curriculum
Content Standards. Four were revised standards in language arts literacy,
visual and performing arts, comprehensive health and physical education,
and world languages. Two were new sets of standards in technological
literacy and career education and consumer, family and life skills
that meet goals in Governor McGreevey’s 21-point Plan for Education
and replace the 1996 Cross-Content Workplace Readiness Standards.
The technology standards are to be incorporated into all areas of
the academic standards. (4/04)
- Sponsored a "Second Annual Conference on Early Literacy" for
more than 300 educators, including teachers, administrators, and
reading coaches. The conference focused on the need to improve language
arts literacy skills for young students to help them meet the goal
of knowing how to read by the end of third grade. (5/04)
- Sponsored a Reading First/Intensive Early Literacy conference for
over 160 educators. The title of the conference was "A Common
Framework for Literacy Instruction" with a focus on curriculum
mapping, process writing, New Jersey reading initiatives, scientifically-based
reading research (SBRR), and various other reading initiative topics.(6/04)
- Received a report from the Middle Grades Literacy Task Force entitled "Improving
the Quality of Literacy Education in New Jersey’s Middle Grades." The
nineteen-member task force was charged with initiating a statewide
conversation about literacy education in grades 4-8; producing
a consensus document that would guide future policy and practice
and contain recommendations for action; and improving the quality
of literacy instruction in grades 4-8. The report addresses these
three areas.
- Launched the New Jersey After 3 initiative announced in Governor
McGreevey’s State-of-the-State address in February. The program
will utilize a $15 million investment to create a public/private
partnership that will bring quality educational and recreational
after-school programs to 20,000 children. This will be the first
state-sponsored after-school program in the nation, and it will be
administered by a nonprofit organization. (5/04)
- Awarded 12 new grant programs under the 21st Century
Community Learning Centers program. Proposals are for supplementing
the education of children who attend low-performing schools and
live in high-poverty areas through before- and after-school and/or
summer programming so that they can gain the skills and knowledge
needed to meet the Core Curriculum Content Standards. Awards ranged
from $233,493 to $500,000 given to 26 grantees across 97 sites
proposing to serve 13,500 children. A new notice of grant opportunity
will be released in the summer of 2004.
Diverse and Multiple Paths for Student Achievement
The Department of Education has done the following:
- Announced plans for a summer pilot program offering selected students
who have not passed the High School
Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) during their junior year the opportunity
to receive five weeks of intensive instruction and then take the
HSPA again in late August. The purpose is to increase the number
of students who pass the HSPA for graduation and decrease reliance
on the Special Review Assessment (SRA) that is intended as an alternative
to the HSPA in very limited circumstances. Fifty students in each
of the following districts will participate: Englewood, Hillside,
Jersey City, Franklin, and Vineland. (6/04)
Innovative and Outstanding Practices and Programs
The Department of Education has done the following:
- Showcased in a special ceremony 13 model programs designed to serve
the needs of second language learners – students for whom English
is a second language or who are learning world languages. These are
the first to be honored under the Second Language Regional Model
Programs initiative which is an outgrowth of the 2002 World Languages
Model Program initiative. Each model program is awarded $2,300 to
support and enhance the program. The schools offering the model programs
will serve as regional resource centers for other districts that
want to observe the exemplary models so that they can replicate the
effective practices. The recognition program is offered every three
years. (5/04)
- Honored the top 15 outstanding graduates from New Jersey’s
colleges and universities that have teacher preparation programs
with a Commissioner’s Distinguished Teacher Award. (5/04)
Public Communication, Engagement and Accountability
The Department of Education has
done the following:
- Utilized county roundtables for the Commissioner to discuss three
key areas of policy issues with district superintendents – implementation
of No Child Left Behind (NCLB),
the Special Review
Assessment (SRA), and the New Jersey
Quality Single Accountability Continuum.
- Made changes to the state’s NCLB Accountability Workbook following
input and additional data analysis. The changes include the following:
establishing a minimum subgroup size of 40 or less for special education
participation rates only rather than the 20 or less that applies
to the other subgroups; implementing the allowable flexibility for
the English language learners subgroup in the general assessment
system, and implementing recent regulatory changes for special education
students participating in the Alternate Proficiency assessment (APA).
- Received approval for New Jersey’s 2002-03 Consolidated Annual
Report on program administration and performance in compliance with
the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998
from the U.S. Department of Education. The state exceeded all targets
for the core indicators that included accuracy, reliability, and
validity of accountability data.
- Revised the annual report and application guidelines and review
processes, as well as program review processes, and introduced a
post-renewal process for charter schools operating with a renewed
charter to enhance charter school accountability.
- Revised the federal grant program to improve the planning year
and start-up success of approved charter applicants and modified
the dissemination grants to promote partnerships and consortia that
focus on expanding the number of high-quality schools in New Jersey.
This fall, the department plans to initiate a new charter development
grant program.
- Established and/or expanded partnerships with nonprofit and government
agencies to address the most persistent changes facing charter schools.
The department also published the first charter school profile book
and held the second annual recognition program to improve public
awareness of NJ charter schools.
