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New Jersey State Board Meeting Wednesday — 03/18/09

Commissioner’s Reports:

Monitoring of School districts via QSAC reports
Deputy Commissioner Willa Spicer said that scores for the second round of school districts that were evaluated are better than those in the first round. She expects that as more districts become familiar with the QSAC process and reporting requirements, etc. this trend will continue and school district scores will continue to improve in the later rounds of evaluations.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009
Deputy Commissioner Spicer stated that the Department does not yet have specific instructions for use or accountability with respect to these funds and they will not be putting out a report until they have all the data and necessary information.
  • First wave of Title I money comes in by end of March, second part comes in July.
  • First wave of IDEA comes in by end of March, second part comes in July.
  • Title I and IDEA funds are distributed by formulas set by feds. State is involved in how to make sure they and districts are completely accountable for how these funds are spent.
  • Competitive money/grants will be available in fall. Guidance on this should be available in summer. Dept will begin to collect ideas on how to use that money in the next month or so.

Agenda Items:

Religious holiday calendar
The State Board adopted the resolution pertaining to the annual calendar of religious holiday for the 2009-2010 school year pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:36-14-16. Complete list can be viewed by clicking on Item E at the following link: http://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/education/sboe/sboe.pl?y=2009&m=March&t=public

Work Session:

Overview of CCCS 2009 Standards Revision Update
  • Standards need to be revised/updated every 5 years.
  • Focus has been to align standards with the knowledge and skills needed for college education and the workplace.
  • Pre – K included for the first time.
  • Draft of all standards available at: www.nj.gov/education/aps
Project timelines:
  • Public Review: Feb thru April 2009
  • Phase I - May - June 2009: Arts, Health and Phys Ed, Social Studies, World Lang, Technology, 21st Century life and Careers.
  • Phase II - Fall 2009: Language Arts literacy, Math, Science.
  • There will be a 3 year period for curriculum alignment to allow districts to adopt and coordinate new standards in a careful manner.
Expectations of the Department for the final version of 2009 Standards:
  • To make everything available in html format on a website.
  • To have a search engine that offers multiple ways to access standards and ability to be printed and downloaded.
  • To have curriculum models developed and available for districts/schools/teachers to access.

Next Board meeting on Wednesday April 15, 2009

The Board will be taking public testimony on the revised high school graduation requirements. Beginning April 1st, anyone who would like to present testimony at the hearing session may reserve a time to speak by registering on-line at: http://education.state.nj.us/sboe/ or by calling the State Board office at: 609-292-0739.

If you are unable to attend the public testimony session, you may still submit written comments electronically at statebd@doe.state.nj.us or by mailing them to:

New Jersey Department of Education
State Board Office
P.O. Box 500
Trenton, NJ 08625-0500