NJ Education Report

NJEA’s PAC has just voted to endorse 47 Democrats and 24 Republicans for the New Jersey Legislature. Here’s the complete list.

The press release also includes a statement from out-going NJEA President Joyce Powell, who is joining NEA’s Executive Committee:

We lead the nation with the best high school graduation rate and our public schools are among the best in the nation in preparing students for higher education. NJEA is committed to supporting pro-public education legislators who will help maintain our successes.

Well, sort of. New Jersey does boast one of the highest graduation rates in the nation, but that status is due to the use of the controversial Special Review Assessment. (Here’s the DOE’s Administrative Manual for 2009.) Kids who fail the regular state high school assessment three times (most fail the math portion largely due to the lack of certified math teachers in low-income districts) then take the SRA, where material is taught in in the form of a mini-quiz. The child is coached indefinitely until he or she can properly regurgitate back the material. When the child passes the series of tests, he or she is deemed eligible for a high school diploma. No one fails the SRA.

A report called “SRA: Loophole or Lifeline” (coauthored by Stan Karp of Education Law Center, big proponents of continued use of the SRA) estimates that 49.1% of children in either Abbott districts or “poor districts” were awarded high school diplomas through the SRA process. Affluent kids? 3%.

Interestingly, the NJEA has chosen to endorse Assemblyman Joseph Cryan of Union County, who is a co-sponsor of Bill 2250. The bill “prohibits State Board of Education from authorizing use of special review assessment as an alternative for meeting graduation requirements.” NJEA, unsurprisingly, is actively opposing the legislation. The 2009 NJEA Legislative Program states, “NJEA believes that the SRA process is a viably sound educational alternative for students who do not perform well on standardized tests.”

You can kind of hardly blame them. If we get rid of the SRA, what will happen to our graduation rates? At a recent NJEA convention, Education Commissioner Lucille Davy addressed concerns about the SRA, according to a union publication:

“The SRA is a legitimate concern for legislators and the public,” Davy noted, given the large numbers of students using this option. But she believes that the legislature won’t eliminate the SRA if it is convinced that changes are being made. “We know we need an alternative exam; we just don’t know what it will look like yet,” she said.

We probably do need an alternative exam: for kids with disabilities, for kids who are new English learners. We don’t need a test that conceals gaping holes in the academic achievement of our low-income children for the purpose of a few good soundbites.

Bill 2250? Lost somewhere in Assembly purgatory.

Follow-up: The Press of Atlantic City notes today that the NJEA’s picks are almost all incumbents, except for one case where the candidate was just charged with corruption.