-Jennie Lamon, Assistant Director of Government Relations
This week was a quiet week in Trenton, as the Legislature did not meet. The NJ State Board of Education (“Board”) met for its regular monthly meeting. Anthony Scotto, NJPSA Board Member and Hamilton Township Director of Curriculum and Instruction, appeared before the Board to present testimony on Chapter 30, Evaluation of the Performance of School Districts. Scotto thanked and commended the State Board for their support of a “growth model” for the Instruction and Program (I & P) section of the QSAC Process testifying that the recognition that “the current model does not work and needs revision is certainly moving forward when evaluating the performance of school districts”. However, Mr. Scotto expressed concern that the newly supported growth model will not go into effect until the 25/26 SY. This means that any district going through the process during the current school year, will not be afforded this “growth model” during the QSAC process, and will therefore not be considered as having met NJQSAC requirements. Mr. Scotto then presented the Board with three possible solutions for their consideration, Read Mr. Scotto’s recommendations and full testimony here.
Agenda items for the State Board this month included approving proficiency level cut scores for WIDA Alternate ACCESS for MLs assessments (grades K-12), pursuant to N.J.A.C. 6A:8-4. The Office of Assessment, Division of Teaching and Learning Services, presented to the Board. The Adoption Resolution can be found here.
The State Board also adopted the sunset readoption with amendments to the Regulatory Equivalency Waiver regulations at N.J.A.C. 6A:5, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:4-15. The chapter provides regulatory flexibility for school districts and other applicable entities to meet the requirements of State education regulations in Title 6A of the New Jersey Administrative Code. View the Department’s presentation to the Board here.
The Board also adopted a Resolution in Recognition of Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Membership Month in New Jersey.
The NJ State Board of Education will meet again on December 4th at 9 AM. If you have questions about any of the issues discussed at this month’s meeting, or would like to get more involved with policy work, please reach out to your NJPSA Government Relations team. Thank you for all that you do!