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Summer Message from the Executive Director

June 2010

JoAnn D. BartolettiBy: JoAnn D. Bartoletti, Executive Director, NJPSA

Dear NJPSA Member,

 

As the school year draws to a close and final grades are determined, your report card, as a school leader, indicates the following accomplishments.  Here are a few to reflect on:

  •  New Jersey led the way in making free preschool education available to children in underserved districts.
  • In 2009, New Jersey’s eighth graders ranked third in the US in NAEP mathematics scores.
  • The average scale score in math for New Jersey’s grade-eight students, 293, is twelve points higher than it was in 2003, and eleven points higher than the national average.
  • New Jersey’s students trail only one state in fourth-grade reading results, and are tied with six other states.
  • In eighth grade, New Jersey has the second highest average scale score in the nation in reading.
  • The jump in the statewide scale score between 2005 and 2007 represents the second-highest reading
    increase in the nation –  a direct result of New Jersey’s early literacy efforts.
  • The 2009 average scale score in reading in grade 8 was 273 in New Jersey, compared to 262 in
    the nation.
  • The percentage of New Jersey eighth grade students with disabilities in the NAEP sample who
    are reading at grade level or above increased from 46 percent in 2007 to 59 percent in 2009.
  • In 2007, according to the NAEP, New Jersey’s eighth graders were the best eighth-grade
    writers in the US.
  • The percentage of economically disadvantaged students scoring proficient or higher in reading increased from  44 percent in 2008 to 51 percent in 2009.
  • The gap between the number of classes taught by highly qualified teachers (HQT) in high-poverty and low-poverty schools has narrowed from 10 perent in 2004-2005 to 0.8 percent in 2008-2009.
  • In recent years, while other states lowered their academic standards and loosened assessment
    procedures, we raised our academic standards.

By the way, these successes appear in Governor Christie’s Race to the Top Grant Application and form the basis for his argument that New Jersey is poised to reach great heights.

 

Support for public education waxes and wanes in New Jersey.  During the better times  great strides are made in education.  Over the years, New Jersey has implemented a number of groundbreaking programs and has attacked some of the most intractable problems in education.  These improvements were not the result of a single-minded focus on budgets and bottom lines.  Rather, they were the result of hard work, perseverance, and a dedication to the belief that every student deserves a high  quality education that will prepare them for careers or college.

 

Our reform effort represents the kind of forward momentum that allows a state to continually adjust to the times by incorporating the latest research on teaching methodologies, adapting to and adopting the latest technologies, and stepping up to meet the shifting priorities of a global economic reality.  In short, New Jersey prepares its students to be productive 21st century citizens, and must continue to do so even now.

 

Despite our fiscal challenges, we must maintain the gains we’ve achieved.  And while our collective psyche has taken a beating of late, we should at least stop and reflect on what we have accomplished in New Jersey thus far.  Our reform record represents the kind of forward momentum that allows us to adjust to the times.

 

I wish you a safe summer.  Please know that NJPSA remains the organization, “Where members matter.”