New Jersey Department of Education

Governor Phil Murphy • Lt. Governor Tahesha Way

The Promising Practices Project

The New Jersey Department of Education, in partnership with the New Jersey State Policy Lab and the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University, conceived of the Promising Practices Project in the Fall of 2022 to explore innovative practices that positively impacted student performance during the pandemic years. In a time when New Jersey schools witnessed record declines in student learning outcomes, some outliers proved to unlock practices that promoted students’ growth and achievement. To learn from local education agencies (LEAs) where promising practices emerged, the Promising Practices Project seeks to identify schools that have developed unique, replicable, and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

Promising Practices Identification Procedure

The Promising Practices study analyzes the practices and activities that bolstered student learning and their positive effect on student performance in ELA and mathematics on the New Jersey State Learning Assessments (NJSLA). The study will explore how individual schools successfully served all students’ needs; with special attention paid to practices that lead to growth in student groups often understood to underperform.  

The research team identified positive outlier schools based on the Department’s School Performance Reports, student demographic/testing data, and NCES socioeconomic files. Using statistical models that compared predicted and actual performance, the research team selected a sample of schools blindly (i.e., without school names identified) that exceeded expected student learning outcomes for all students and/or for some disaggregated groups of students (i.e., English learners, students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, etc.). The team selected schools based on overall, disaggregated group-specific, and post-COVID improvements in student learning outcomes, ensuring representation in every county of the state, and at various levels of racial/ethnic diversity and need. 

After the quantitative analysis, the Rutgers research team will focus on 52 New Jersey schools from 47 LEAs statewide with identified positive learning outcomes when comparing pre- to post-pandemic performance in ELA and mathematics. 

The Department and the Rutgers research team will work with the identified LEAs to uncover innovative, promising practices that significantly impact students’ academic performance. Once the promising practices are determined, the strategies will be disseminated throughout the state via relevant presentations, reports, and convenings.

2024 List of Identified Schools (By Region)

Contact Us

NJ Promising Practices Resources

If you see an alligator

Dont forget to scream By: Unknown Author

If you see an alligator


Back
to top