Public Testimony Open: NJQSAC August 7, 2024

Dr. Colleen Murray, Superintendent, Lumberton Township School District

Hello Members of the State Board of Education:

Thank you for your service for the betterment of public education. My name is Dr. Colleen Murray and I serve the Lumberton Township School District. As a PK8 district that has been hit hard by budget cuts in the past several years, I would like to explain the impact the changes to Chapter 30, or QSAC, has on our district. We are a highly diverse district with students of color representing 59% of our student body. 21% or our students have special ed plans, we have a rising MLL population and nearly 30% of our students are considered economically disadvantaged. QSAC unfairly penalizes Lumberton and prevents me and the Lumberton educators from doing the best job for our students and community. 

With an overload of ever-expanding unfunded mandates, coupled with years of budget cuts, it is impossible to drive professional learning forward enough to move the needle forward on lagging student achievement. We are keen to adopt Open Sci Ed as our science program, however, the cost for professional development is astronomical. Add to that that we would have to pay teachers to go during the summer, since sub coverage is inconsistent and hard to come by, especially in light of the new sick leave law.  If we were to plan this work during our 6 professional development days, those teachers would miss out on key, full district initiatives work such as our new Code of Conduct procedures, Nurtured Heart training, Crisis Prevention Institute training, training in our new math program, and mandatory annual trainings such as blood borne pathogens and dyslexia training. One could argue that this is a contract issue, but with the decrease in funding with concurrent increases in unfunded mandates such as Threat Assessment Team, HIB updates, restraints and seclusions data analysis, and more, coupled with rising inflation and health care costs, our multi-year contracts cannot keep up. 

We are committed to being held responsible for showing continual improvement. There are measures that QSAC does not consider, that one might consider as equally important. For instance, every one of our students engaged in real-world, project-based learning this year. One team researched African American historical figures in our small town and created postcards to commemorate their contributions to our community. Another class created Roman Roads and gave informed suggestions for improvements for I95 after the collapse in Philadelphia. We reduced our disciplinary referrals this year by 60%! That means our students are growing along social emotional lines that are not measured by QSAC. Our students have a voice in our programs and practices. For example, we have student representatives in grades 5-8 who serve as liaisons to the Board of Education. They have helped inform changes such as improvements to our code of conduct. Our students are designing real-world solutions to real world problems. As we look to demonstrate our instructional talents as a district, standardized test scores are but one measure of many that make up healthy programming. I am not asking for us to lower the bar - I am asking that we measure success more holistically and in ways that do not unfairly punish our students and constituents. Our educators can either focus on the flawed requirements of QSAC, or they can focus on educating our students. 

Accountability is important; we can’t lose sight of that. Equitable accountability is critical, which is why we need to update the QSAC process. My recommendations follow:

Please fully fund currently unfunded mandates 

1. Please provide training for NJDOE recommended curricula such as Open Sci Ed. For instance, expert job-embedded instructional coaching support for districts who are required to create a District Improvement Plan. 

2. Most importantly, change the scoring requirements for I&P to reflect individual student growth, as opposed to norm-referenced scores. 

3. Please create a task force to consider our voice when you consider changes to QSAC. 

I would like to volunteer to serve on such a task force. I look forward to us holding each other accountable and am grateful for democratic structures like this that enable us to do so. Thank you, again, for your time and consideration.