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REPORT ON SHARED SERVICES NOW AVAILABLE (11/26/2007)

The Institute on Education Law and Policy and the New Jersey School Boards Association are pleased to announce the release of Shared Services in School Districts: Policies, Practices and Recommendations, a major study on shared services in four New Jersey counties.

The report focuses on cooperative activities among school districts, municipalities and county governments in four New Jersey counties: Bergen, Burlington, Essex and Somerset. It discusses the extent to which school districts share services, the benefits of shared services, and best practices. It also recommends changes in law and regulation to further promote shared services among school districts and local government.

The concept of shared services is expected to be a critical component of school district and local government finance due to recent laws that emanated from the state Legislature’s special session on property tax reform and the establishment of a new school funding formula.

Lead researchers will report the study’s findings and recommendations, including initiatives by the state and local school districts at a press conference, to be held at the State House in Trenton on Tuesday, November 27 at 11:30 a.m. in Room 109.

For further information about the news conference, contact the Institute on Education Law and Policy at (973) 353-5216 or the NJSBA Communications Department at (609) 278-5202.

A full copy of the report and related documents is available at http://ielp.rutgers.edu/projects/sharedservices.

STUDY FINDS ACADEMIC ADVANTAGES IN AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS (11/21/2007)

A new study finds that disadvantaged students who regularly participate in high-quality afterschool programs have higher scores on standardized tests, exhibit better work habits, and present fewer behavioral problems. The two-year study was undertaken by the University of California at Irvine, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Policy Studies Associates, Inc., and was designed to examine relations between high-quality afterschool programs and desired academic and behavioral outcomes for low-income students. It followed nearly 3,000 ethnically diverse elementary and middle-school students who came from eight states, and a mix of urban, suburban and rural environments.

The results from the study included:

- Elementary age students who regularly participated in the programs showed gains of 20 percent in math achievement tests compared to students who were unsupervised during afterschool hours. Similarly, middle school age children who regularly participated in the programs showed gains of 12 percent in math achievement tests compared to their peers who were unsupervised.

- Elementary age students showed gains in teacher reports of work habits, while middle school age students had significant gains in self-reported work habits.

- Both age groups showed significant reductions in reports of misconduct, such as skipping school and getting into fights.

The study concludes “…plans for high-quality afterschool programming should span entire communities. When communities and program providers unite to recruit and engage youth in high-quality afterschool experiences, programs can provide the types of benefits described here for the largest number of students.”

Related Documents

Institute of Education Sciences: National Assessment of Title I – Final Report (11/15/2007)

Transmittal Letter from USDOE to Congress (11/15/2007)

TRACTENBERG MODERATES PANEL DISCUSSION ON ABBOTT V. BURKE (9/24/2007)

On September 19, 2007 IELP Founding Director Paul Tractenberg moderated a panel discussion on public education entitled “Equalizing Educational Opportunities in New Jersey: A Conversation with Five Former Supreme Court Justices about Abbott v. Burke.” The panel consisted of former New Jersey Supreme Court justices who had participated in various rulings in the Abbott v. Burke public school finance litigation: Chief Justice Deborah Poritz, and Associate Justices James Coleman, Alan Handler and Gary Stein (a fifth justice, Daniel O’Hern, was unable to participate at the last minute). The event, which took place at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick, was well attended.

The “conversation” was scintillating and wide-ranging. The former justices addressed questions such as, what is the appropriate role of the judiciary in the public education funding debate? What are the proper roles of the executive and legislative branches of government in this debate? What is the capacity to implement Abbott of the Department of Education and the various branches of government? What do the 37 words of the education clause in the New Jersey Constitution mean, particularly “thorough,” “efficient,” “education” and “system?” A lively two-hour discussion was followed by a Q and A with the audience. The panel discussion was sponsored jointly by the Institute on Education Law and Policy, the Public Education Institute, the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, and ten other organizations.

NJDOE ANNOUNCES TEACHER QUALITY SURVEY RESULTS (9/12/2007)

Last week, NJ Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy announced that 99 percent of New Jersey teachers meet the designation of “highly qualified.” The No Child Left Behind Act requires that 100 percent of teachers meet the standard of highly qualified in every subject that they teach, a requirement no state has yet achieved.

In order to meet this standard, teachers are required to:

1. Have a bachelors degree;

2. Have a valid state certification for which no requirements have been waived; and

3. Demonstrate content expertise in the subjects they teach through federal criteria set out by NCLB.

In addition to these results, New Jersey also reported dramatic gains in closing the gap between the number of classes taught by highly qualified teachers in high poverty schools versus low poverty schools. The gap reported was 1.6 percent in 2006-07, down from 10 percent in 2004-05.