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Friday, October 29, 2004
BY JOHN MOONEY
Star-Ledger Staff
After years of lagging test scores, elementary
school students in the state's poorest districts
showed sizable gains in their reading scores last
year, according to new state data.
What's behind the increase is open to debate --
some point to the benefits of increased spending on
those students, other credit their programs, still
others a combination of factors. But the scores
were seen as encouraging news for the 31 districts
that fall under the state Supreme Court's landmark
Abbott vs. Burke rulings.
In school language arts, 75 percent of the
general education fourth-graders passed the state's
reading and writing test in Abbott districts,
including East Orange, New Brunswick, Elizabeth,
Passaic and Perth Amboy.
The 8.3 percent rise among all Abbotts was twice
the statewide increase, and some districts such as
Orange and Asbury Park posted gains near 20
percent.
The overall achievement in poor districts
remained well short of the statewide average of 90
percent passing last year, and the scores in the
middle schools appeared relatively flat.
But coupled with similar rises in the math
scores, for fourth-graders the margin between
Abbott districts and the rest of the state
continues to narrow since the court's 1998 ruling,
which demanded students in the poorest schools
receive the same educational opportunities as those
in the richest.
"What we have are results we have never seen
before, the kind of results all of the Abbott
decisions have been designed to produce," said
state Education Commissioner William Librera. "They
speak for themselves, and we are really
encouraged."
State officials played up the biggest gains in
districts in which the state Department of
Education channeled its most intensive literacy
programs, using an approach it is pushing the court
to adopt for all of the districts. The latest
scores were part of court documents filed this
month in the state's proposal to adopt a more
districtwide approach to reading instruction,
instead of the current strategy of intervening
school by school.
"We know the practices that work to be good
readers," said Gordon MacInnes, the assistant
commissioner in charge of the Abbott programs. "And
we want those practices of early literacy in every
classroom this year. If we do, we will see a
dramatic rise across the state, of that I am
certain."
Among the biggest gains were in Asbury Park,
Orange and Pleasantville, where the state has
launched a pilot program of its districtwide
approach.
"We want to pay attention to the places seeing
20 percent, not just 8 percent, because that seems
to be real breakthrough kind of news," said
Librera.
But others credited the overall Abbott strategy
demanded by the court over the years for elementary
schools, including hundreds of millions of
additional dollars and a focus on improved
curriculum and instruction across the board.
The Abbott districts will receive about $4
billion from the state this year. New Jersey has
made the country's biggest gains in adequately
funding its low-income schools, according to a
recent national report by Education Trust.
"The gaps are closing in districts where there
is this overall approach," said David Sciarra,
director of the Education Law Center, the Newark
advocacy group that has led the Abbott challenge.
"It's about the resources, and also the specific
directives from the court on how the resources are
to be focused," he said. "When you put it all
together, something good happens."
Long Branch saw a 12 percent rise in its scores,
and its superintendent said any number of factors
are at work, including the preschool programs
launched by the court's 1998 mandates now bearing
fruit in the elementary schools.
"Without a doubt, the money was important, but
the Supreme Court did some remarkable things in its
rulings," said Superintendent Joseph Ferraina.
"Abbott has a had a lot to do with it, but it's
also how you carry it out."
Aware of the political and budget pressures on
the state to contain spending, others also stressed
the additional funds have clearly helped to provide
for needed teachers and other programs aimed at
student achievement.
"You can't discount what Abbott has done," said
Jonathan Hodges, president of the Paterson school
board. "We've been languishing a long time, and
with the Abbott dollars, we have been able to
repair that damage."
The report by Education Trust cited New Jersey's
rise from seeing its low-income districts spending
$800 less per pupil than the wealthiest districts
in 1997 to last year spending nearly $600 more.
With that additional spending, the report's
author said the conversation would be far different
if the scores had not improved.
"Certainly, the increased scores are
encouraging," said Kevin Carey, a senior policy
analyst with the Washington, D.C., think tank. "It
is what you would want to see in terms of increases
in funding. If there weren't increases in
achievement, that would be a great cause for
concern."
John Mooney covers education. He can be
reached at jmooney@star ledger.com, or (973)
392-1548.
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"As democracy is perfected, the
office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the
people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their
heart's desire at last and the White House
will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
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Monday, December 27, 2004
By TOM MEAGHER
HERALD NEWS
PATERSON - City officials say the New Jersey
Schools Construction Corp. could put students at
risk by forgoing a footbridge at the school planned
for the corner of Marshall and Hazel streets.
City Council and Board of Education members fear
that students walking to the new Marshall Street
Elementary School could become victims of careless
or speeding drivers in the Hazel Street
neighborhood.
"You can't educate a dead child, so you have to
make sure that the child gets there safely,"
Councilman Kenneth Morris said at a recent meeting
between the council and school board.
Citing the council's objections to the location
of the bridge at the dead-end of Paxton Street, an
SCC spokesman said last week that the school will
be built without it.
In spring 2004, the $18.2 million school
construction project was on track with no
objections from the city. The SCC plans to build a
two-story, 101,400-square-foot building that will
serve students from kindergarten through eighth
grade. It will break ground on the 45-classroom
facility in February and complete it by September
2006, according to Dominick DeMarco, an SCC
spokesman.
Councilmen Aslon Goow and Thomas Rooney say a
footbridge between the school and nearby
residential streets, over below-grade NJ Transit
train tracks, would compound traffic problems in
the neighborhood. Although the school will feature
a drop-off area, the two believe parents would line
Paxton Street to collect their children and block
traffic along hectic Bloomfield Avenue.
"In their hurry to build a new school, [the
SCC is] ignoring the safety of children, and
even their parents, and that's what we don't like,"
Rooney said.
The councilmen have argued for a better spot for
the footbridge, one block away on Dakota Street,
that would give parents an easy way to drop off
children without causing gridlock. They also want
the SCC to install guardrails along Hazel Street in
front of the school to protect students from
drivers.
The SCC rejected the councilmen's suggestions.
Moving the bridge would require a longer span,
DeMarco said. "That would have added another
million [dollars] to the project," he
said.
The council members took umbrage.
"We don't want to be muscled by them, and they
have to be responsive to the future of the kids,"
Goow said. "These schools are going to be around a
lot longer than we are."
The council asked the SCC to reconsider, but the
agency instead removed the bridge from the
construction project altogether.
Interim Schools Superintendent Dennis Clancy
said that the city needs the school, with or
without the bridge. In a rare joint meeting, the
council and school board called for traffic studies
to determine if blocking off Paxton would permit
parents to safely drop off and pick up children
along Bloomfield Avenue.
School board President Jonathan Hodges said to
lose the bridge would be foolish.
Last week, Rooney toured the neighborhood with
city Business Administrator Eli Burgos, the city's
traffic engineer and the head of the Police
Department's traffic division. Burgos said that he
will meet with Mayor Joey Torres today to discuss
the problem.
DeMarco did not rule out the SCC restoring the
Paxton Street bridge to the project, if the city
could find other ways to alleviate traffic concerns
there.
Email: meagher@northjersey.com
The Department of Education has just made
available an on-line tutorial designed to assist
teachers of English language learners. The
tutorial, "English Language Learners in the
Mainstream" gives examples of effective practices,
research findings, suggestions and a list of
resources to support all school personnel in aiding
students whose first language is not English.
New Tutorial Developed to Enhance
Skills of Teachers of English Language
Learners
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The tutorial, available at no charge to all New
Jersey educators, was developed as a joint project
between the Office of Specialized Populations,
Bureau of Bilingual / ESL Education and by the New
Jersey Professional Education Port (NJPEP). To
access the tutorial, visit NJPEP at
http://njpep.org/ and click on Tutorials, or visit
the department's bilingual education web-site at
http://www.state.nj.us/njded/bilingual and click on
Professional Development.
"New Jersey's educators do a great job of
meeting the needs of our students whose native
language is not English," said Acting Governor
Richard J. Codey. "This new guide will further
enhance their abilities to help these children."
"English Language Learners in the Mainstream" is
designed for educators to learn on their own, via
study groups, or as part of an in-school or
district-wide professional development series. It
was piloted by a group of New Jersey educators last
summer.
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LIFE.....
Life should NOT be a journey to the
grave with the intention of arriving
safely in an attractive and well preserved
body, but rather to skid in sideways,
chocolate in one hand, martini in the
other, body thoroughly used up, totally
worn out and screaming ~ "WOO HOO what a
ride!"
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