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NJ Spotlight - PARCC Field Test Goes Online as Exam Moves Closer to Full Deployment...Kudos and controversies aside, New Jersey is about to undergo a sea change in the way it evaluates students, schools, and teachers
The Record - Christie hasn't said where $700M in budget cuts will come homework?
Press of Atlantic City - Education advocates want New Jersey aid recalculated
Star Ledger - Poll: Does your student have too much homework?
NJ Spotlight - PARCC Field Test Goes Online as Exam Moves Closer to Full Deployment
John Mooney | March 20, 2014
Kudos and controversies aside, New Jersey is about to undergo a sea change in the way it evaluates students, schools, and teachers
PARCC is finally here -- or at least pretty close.
Starting on Monday, more than 1,200 schools across New Jersey will start field-testing the new online state exams that are part of the 17-state Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC).
Related Links
Preparing for PARCC Field Test: Training for Test Administrators
Schools and Districts in PARCC Field Test
More than 1,200 Schools Will Take Part in PARCC Tryout
The testing is a change in the way New Jersey assesses how its public schools are performing and students are learning, fully aligned with the national Common Core State Standard.
For the first time, the tests will be administered entirely online.
The field-testing that starts next week and runs through early April is a practice run for the real thing, which will be administered statewide in 2015. A handful of districts last year went through the test run, but this is the first time that schools in a majority of districts will be taking part.
The results in this round do not count and are simply part of the system shakeout, but just the advent of the tests in New Jersey was not without controversy. Concerns and protest have centered on how much the tests will ultimately count -- not in just gauging schools and students but also teachers through the state’s new evaluation system.
The immediate concerns have been more local: Do school districts have enough computers? Is there enough broadband capacity to transmit the tests and students’ responses? Will the testing even work online?
The state Department of Education has been flooding districts with information about the testing over the past several months, including webinars and an array of guidelines for test coordinators and administrators.
The Washington School is one of four schools in Lodi that will be trying out the test Monday, with two of its fourth-grade classes taking the language arts section over three days next week.
The school tried out the technology last week, and with a couple of small adjustments, it worked fine, said principal Emil Carafa. The school will accommodate the testing in its computer lab, and also a portable bank of computers that can move from classroom to classroom.
And teachers have been walking students through the new process, he said, using the sample tests that have been released by PARCC.
Still, Carafa said teachers and administrators know they are embarking on a new era of testing, ultimately to replace the pencil-and-paper NJASK tests.
“There is always anticipation, but we are looking at it as a learning experience,” he said yesterday.
When asked whether there was a sense of anticipation, he said: “Among the faculty, there is. It makes the realization that PARCC is really coming.”
And Carafa said the changes are sure to be lasting. “It is a shift in education; it is a shift in instruction; it is a shift in assessment. In my years in education, I’ve seen shifts in a lot of ways, but this will be different.”
The Record - Christie hasn't said where $700M in budget cuts will come
March 20, 2014, 12:06 AM Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2014, 12:07 AM
By JOHN REITMEYER
STATE HOUSE BUREAU
Governor Christie is cutting nearly $700 million in spending from the state’s $33 billion budget, but now weeks after he announced the cuts, his administration has not said what programs will be affected.
Today, at his latest town hall event, Christie will be talking about the state spending plan he made public in February. But he and his administration have said little about the budget for the current fiscal year after he conceded in February that the original revenue forecast was too optimistic and that new cuts were needed.
In past years, similar cuts — spending adjustments called “lapses” in state budget documents — have affected everything from affordable housing to property tax relief programs, including last year’s delay of about $400 million in property tax credits.
Problems with budget math have long been an issue for Christie, a Republican who took office amid recession in early 2010. He was forced to cut roughly $2 billion in spending his first year in office as the economic downturn took hold and as it became clear that tax collections wouldn’t live up to the budget projections Christie inherited from former Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.
But in more recent years, it has been Christie’s own missed projections that have brought on other cuts and adjustments to keep the budget in balance, something required by the state constitution.
This year, New Jersey’s $33 billion budget was running a revenue shortfall estimated to be as high as $400 million when Christie’s administration announced the latest round of spending lapses, which total $694 million.
Yet so far, the state Department of Treasury has not detailed which programs the new cuts will affect, and the governor hasn’t made himself available to reporters since Jan. 9 as he continues to fend off questions about the ongoing controversy over the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge lane last September.
The Record submitted a public records request seeking additional details on the spending lapses. Treasury did not provide numbers and said it needs more time to compile such information. Treasury spokesman Chris Santarelli said Tuesday that the information could be ready by the end of this week.
Budget documents released Feb. 25 indicate the lapses will help offset two midyear changes to the spending plan Christie signed in June. Treasury reduced its revenue forecast by $250 million in February, and it also reported $292 million in supplemental spending added to the budget Christie signed last year.
The lapses are sometimes just the routine result of budgeting too much for a specific line item. But they can also be used to put spending back in balance. Treasury’s decision last year to delay nearly $400 million in Homestead property tax credits for several months to offset a revenue shortfall was technically recorded as a lapse. Often the lapses are released in lists that document the savings from each spending reduction.
State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff called the latest lapses “more or less, by definition, under spending,” during a February budget briefing with reporters. He cited some savings in Medicaid spending, but then said he would put forward more details at a later date.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, have already begun to hold hearings on the $34.45 billion spending plan Christie proposed for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. In the coming weeks, they can either adopt Christie’s proposed budget or send their own appropriations bill to the governor.
The release of two key state financial reports that had been delayed is expected to help lawmakers as they work through the budget issues.
Just this month, Treasury released the comprehensive audit of spending during the last fiscal year, which ended on June 30. It indicated the Christie administration again had to use surplus funds to keep spending in balance. Last year, the report was released in January.
“Along with staff turnover and a higher than usual number of office closings and delays for severe weather, end-of-the-year accounting reconciliations took longer than expected,” Santarelli said.
The annual state debt report, typically released in late December or early January, was made public this year in February. That report showed the state’s bonded debt has increased to a record $40 billion.
Sidamon-Eristoff is scheduled to appear before lawmakers to discuss the budget issues for the first time on April 1 and 2.
But Christie has been talking about his $34.45 billion budget proposal during recent town hall events, with the latest scheduled to be held today in Flemington. Christie’s proposal calls for spending to increase by more than $1 billion to help cover a more than $2 billion payment into New Jersey’s underfunded public employee pension system.
The governor is banking on state revenue collections to go up by nearly 6 percent during the next fiscal year, one of the most optimistic revenue projections of any U.S. state this year, according to a recent Bloomberg News report.
Press of Atlantic City - Education advocates want New Jersey aid recalculated
Posted: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 11:37 pm
Education advocates want New Jersey aid recalculated By DIANE D’AMICO Education Writer The Press of Atlantic City
Over the past five years, school districts in New Jersey have been learning to live with less state aid. Most are still expected to get less next year than they got five years ago, according to Department of Education data and a review by the state Office of Legislative Services.
Now, some legislators and education advocates are trying to force the education commissioner to recalculate next year’s state aid based on the state School Funding Reform Act formula. They are also trying to get the Legislature to put more money in the budget for schools.
Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed 2014-15 budget increases the almost $8 billion allocated to schools by less than $37 million for all 577 school districts. The proposed aid amounts were not calculated using the SFRA formula but awarded on the basis of enrollment at $20 more per student.
A joint resolution sponsored largely by Democratic members of the Assembly Education Committee would require the state to recalculate the aid using the formula within 30 days of its passage. David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center, said he will also be lobbying for a 5 percent increase of $400 million for schools, which he admits will be difficult but says is long overdue.
Sciarra said when schools held April budget elections it was difficult to make major changes to state aid once the governor introduced the proposed budget. But now that most districts no longer hold elections, there is more time for the Legislature to act and districts to adjust their budgets. Districts are required to have preliminary budgets to their county Office of Education by today for review, but public hearings on them won’t be held until the end of April.
“They could do a preliminary budget, then revisit it again after the state budget is struck (by July 1)“ Sciarra said. “We know it’s difficult to find more money, but it’s been five years, and the time to do it is now. ”
School districts have been struggling since the 2010-11 school year, when the recession and lack of extra federal funds cut school aid statewide by more than $800 million. Small increases in subsequent years have not made up the losses, and almost 80 percent of all districts are still getting less state aid for 2014-15 than they got in 2009-10.
Minimal state aid increases and the 2 percent cap on property-tax increases have forced districts to trim programs and staff. Some have fared better or worse because of shifts in enrollment, costly placements for special education students, or the benefits of extra state aid from the state school choice program.
Among the districts with the biggest five-year gaps in state aid are Atlantic City, Brigantine, Linwood, Margate, Ventnor and the Wildwoods. All have found ways to save money, but officials said every year it gets harder to find new places to cut.
Linwood school Business Administrator Terry Weeks said that district plans to cut one teaching position and will eliminate six school clubs next year. She said the district also is affected by fluctuating enrollment, which has been dropping over the past few years. But the small amount of additional aid this year won’t even cover some mandated expenses.
Districts statewide got about $10 per student to help prepare for the new online state tests that start in 2015. Linwood got about $8,000.
“But just updating the wireless in one school is $40,000,” Weeks said. The district’s state aid for 2014-15 is about $450,000 less than it was in in 2009-10.
For small districts, even small changes can have a huge impact. North Wildwood Business Administrator John Hansen said fewer students are going to Wildwood High School, so they will save money on tuition, but out-of-district placements for several special education students will increase costs that will likely require an increase in property taxes.
North Wildwood’s state aid for 2014-15 is about $336,000 less than it was in 2009-10.
Wildwood Business Administrator Martha Jamison said her district cut six positions this year, and there are some maintenance projects planned for next year. After four years with no tax increases, she expects to need one in 2014-15. The district’s state aid is about $500,000 below what it was five years ago. Jamison said the tax-levy increase could be almost 4 percent, using some of the cap allowance the district banked in previous years to exceed the 2 percent cap.
“The budgets have all been incredibly tight,” Jamison said. “I really worried about having a deficit last year, but we made it. And I can’t reinstate anything we’ve cut.”
Margate is also slated to get about $390,000 less in state aid than five years ago. Superintendent Theresa DeFranco and Business Administrator Susan Palaia said the closing of the Union Avenue School in 2010 helped control expenses to compensate for the aid loss, and they are not expecting a tax increase for next year.
“There was that one bad year, but then it leveled off,” Palaia said. She said enrollment was dropping but has stabilized, and district officials are planning some repairs on the remaining schools.
Sciarra said by not running the state formula and calculating adequacy budgets showing what districts should be spending, it is impossible for the public to know whether their district is spending wisely or whether the state aid allocations are equitable.
“We have to get the formula run as an initial first step so districts know where they stand,” he said. “Right now, all the stress is on property taxes.”
Contact Diane D’Amico:
609-272-7241
State aid comparison
Chart shows a sampling of local districts with the largest gaps in state aid from 2009-10 to the 2014-15 proposed state budget.
District FY2010 aid FY2015 aid Change
Atlantic City $20,999,441 $17,701,554 -16%
Brigantine $3,054,326 $2,291,507 -25%
Linwood $2,025,182 $1,571,925 -22%
Margate $935,752 $546,380 -42%
Ventnor $2,556,468 $2,088,885 -18%
Cape May Vo-Tech $1,731,412 $1,382,814 -20%
North Wildwood $1,022,788 $666,740 -34%
Wildwood $5,690,955 $5,185,220 -9%
Wildwood Crest $761,265 $656,345 -14%
Star Ledger - Poll: Does your student have too much homework?
By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on March 20, 2014 at 7:35 AM, updated March 20, 2014 at 7:41 AM
How much homework is too much?
One hour
Two hours
Three hours
More than three hours
Vote View Results
It's one of the hot issues in education: How much homework is too much?
School districts around the country — including Hopewell Valley Regional and Galloway districts here in New Jersey — have set limits, and parents and advocates who watched the documentary "Race to Nowhere" have pointed to homework as one of the reasons students are stressed out.
But the "Homework in America" section of the 2014 Brown Center Report on American Education finds no real increase in the amount of homework American students do each night.
The report, from the Brookings Institute, studied data from parents, recent high school graduates and responses from a national test. It concludes that most students have about an hour of homework, and that only about 15 percent of students have more than two hours of homework. Most of those students are juniors and seniors in high school, according to the report.
How much homework does your student have? Take our poll.
