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NJ Spotlight – NJ Public School Teachers Assess Garden State’s Smallest Scholars…Schools wrap up pilot round of kindergarten-entry assessments (KEA), start to compile data
John Mooney | November 19, 2014
While debates have raged as to the value and amount of testing that will come this spring with the state’s new online exams, little fanfare greeted the state-sponsored assessments that took place over the past two months in New Jersey’s youngest grades.
In 250 kindergarten classrooms across 25 districts, teachers were evaluating their four- and five-year-old charges and their schoolwork over the course of the first seven weeks of the semester to gauge their social-emotional development, as well as their fledgling literacy and math skills.
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NJ Kindergarten Entry Assessment (NJKEA)
These weren’t the classic paper-and-pencil tests -- or even online ones. Instead, a system developed by Teaching Strategies Inc. assesses a child’s written work or uses observations to see how well kids interact with their peers.
When the testing per se was complete, the resultant data for each child was compiled and is now being used as the basis for individualized reports.
Such is the beginning of new kindergarten-entry assessments (KEA) that within five years could be in every public school district in New Jersey. Entirely voluntary at this point, the main purpose of the tests, state officials said, is to get a clear view of children’s starting points in kindergarten so as help develop the instruction they will need going forward.
“These are areas -- social-emotional development and literacy and math -- that are on the minds of every kindergarten teacher at the beginning of the year, but they may never had the tool to speak to what they are doing,” said Vincent Costanza, the state’s executive director of the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge programs.
The project was part of the state’s proposal for the federal Race to the Top grant in 2013, and the state had been piloting it in seven districts for the past two years. More than a half-dozen states have either started or are rolling out the KEA, including Michigan and Massachusetts, several of which are using Teaching Strategies’ GOLD instrument and others are developing their own.
The model itself has 10 areas of potential assessment -- ranging from physical to the arts -- but the state at this point is starting with just three. After this first year, New Jersey plans to introduce 1,200 teachers in each of the next four years to the test system.
The new assessments are also one piece in a broader approach the state has developed called Kindergarten Seminars, officials said, a five-part series where experts and trainers work with kindergarten teachers across the state on a host of best practices.
“This is a portfolio-based tool in the classroom that we know has a lot going on,” Costanza said. “Even as teachers are doing all kinds of things in their classes, this is making sure they are collecting evidence about their kids.”
Assessments in the early grades are nothing new, typically chosen independently by each district from a commercial service and used especially to screen for potential disabilities.
Still, Costanza and others acknowledged it can be a tough time to be talking about new state testing, in any form. While not an on-demand test where a child sits for the evaluation, officials said the state is nonetheless rolling this out carefully.
“We don’t know if we will require it,” said Ellen Wolock, the state’s early childhood director. “Right now, it is voluntary, as I think there is some reluctance to add another initiative to our requirements.”
Cynthia Rice, senior policy analyst for the Advocates for Children of New Jersey, was among those in the advocacy community that backed the proposal in the grant application, and she said it still remains an important piece in improving early childhood education.
She also had some questions as to whether it will be required and what kinds of reports will be generated, but she stressed this is a very different kind of assessment that has generated so much debate in older grades.
“I know assessment can be a dirty word, but this is not a sit-down test,” she said. “And if it can help us know where a child is coming into school, that’s a good thing.”
The 25 districts participating:
· Asbury Park
· Bayonne
· Bellmawr
· Berkeley Heights
· Camden
· Cliffside Park
· East Newark
· Elizabeth
· Hopatcong Borough Schools
· Kingwood Township
· Lakewood
· Little Egg Harbor
· Lower Alloways Creek
· Ocean City
· Paterson
· Pemberton
· Pennsgrove
· Phillipsburg
· Pleasantville
· Rahway
· Red Bank
· Saddle Brook
· Scotch Plains
· West Milford
· Willingboro
Press of Atlantic City - A.C. school board hears ideas to cut costs
Posted: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 8:01 pm
By DIANE D’AMICO Education Writer The Press of Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY — The local school board has not yet decided how to reduce costs and property taxes next year, but local residents and a few board members have some ideas.
Alfreda Mills of the Atlantic City NAACP told the school board at its meeting Tuesday night that her group believes there is plenty of room for cuts. Among its suggestions are reducing the number of supervisors, reducing the number of coaches, reduce crisis counselors to part-time and contract for more as needed. She also questioned why the district got just one bid for a truck.
“Why weren’t there more?” she asked. She said they would like more information on the district’s plan to decrease the budget and reduce property taxes.
The school district is facing massive cuts suggested by a governor’s advisory commission on Atlantic City. The district could be forced to cut as much as $40 million from the operating budget of about $165 million.
The board did not respond, but superintendent Donna Haye has previously said that she is working up proposals to present to the state Department of Education on Dec. 1.
A couple of board members did acknowledge the upcoming crisis during the meeting. Ruth Byard voted against several resolutions on the budget that involved spending money, including payment of bills.
Ventnor representative Kim Bassford questioned the longtime policy of allowing employees and some non-profits to use the schools for events without charge, and often without providing event insurance. Many local residents apply to use the school cafeteria and the high school boathouse on weekends. Nine events were listed on Tuesday’s meeting agenda, including two birthday parties, a baby shower, a swim competition, and two luncheons. The applicants are charged for the use of a custodian, typically $180 for a four-hour event.
The swim competition by Pleasantville Aquatics will pay an $800 building use fee for the two-day competition in February, plus $1,920 for two custodians for two days. The group did provide an insurance certificate. Hassan Kirk, the applicant for a private evening birthday party in December at the boathouse will be charged a $500 use fee, $480 for two custodians, and $390 for two security officers, according to the agenda, but was not required to provide insurance. Employee Rodney Braithwaite will use the Martin Luther King School Complex cafeteria for a baby shower at no charge except for a $150 fee for the custodian, and no insurance requirement. A Girl Scout troop is using a room at MLK school for a leadership program at no charge, with an insurance certificate pending.
Bassford said since the schools are popular, charging more applicants might be a way to generate revenue. She also wanted a review of the district’s liability if private parties do not get event insurance.
The board also approved the high school physics group’s proposal to construct a windmill this year to provide power to the small Physics House built by students last year behind the school to use for experiments and storage. Teacher George Quinn and members of the group attended the meeting as student project directors Yashin Kabir and Umama Ahmed of Atlantic City outlined their proposal. They said the project will cost about $1,150, but the materials have already been obtained or donated, so will not have any costs to the districts.
“All we need is permission,” said Kabir, which was enthusiastically granted. The engineering firm of Remington, Vernick and Walberg was asked to review safety issues, and has donated the pre-engineered base for the windmill.
Contact Diane D'Amico:
609-272-7241
