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ARCHIVE FOR JULY 2007

NJ DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION RELEASES FIRST SET OF QSAC REVIEWS (7/25/2007)

After examining the QSAC monitoring reports of seven state-operated and Level II districts, education commissioner Lucille Davy has recommended that certain key components of school district operations of Jersey City and Newark school districts be returned to local control. Jersey City has been under state control since 1989, and Newark since 1995.

The reviews consist of the results of the District Performance Review, or DPR, which was completed for each district by an outside team of experts. The DPR is a checklist of approximately 350 items in five categories: governance, fiscal management, personnel, instruction and program, and operations management. A district must meet more than 80 percent of the indicators in a particular area to be considered “high performing.” If a district achieves between 50 and 80 percent of the indicators, they must file a corrective action plan with the Department of Education. If a district meets less than 50 percent of the indicators in an area, the Department will work with the district to identify problems and provide solutions, one of which may be to recommend state intervention. The Jersey City school district was found to be high performing in governance (89 percent) and financial operations (92 percent), whereas Newark was found to be high performing in operations management (86 percent). Commissioner Davy has recommended that these functions be returned to local control.

Completed QSAC reports for Asbury Park, Camden, Irvington, Salem City and Trenton have been released as well (reports for Atlantic City and Paterson will be released shortly). Results for these districts were mixed--Salem City received high performing results in operations management and fiscal management, and mid-level performance in the remaining areas, while Camden received below 50 percent in all five indicators (a link to the page containing the full report of each district is below).

For more information on QSAC, see the Institute’s report NJ QSAC: 2006 Pilot Program Evaluation, as well as the pamphlet QSAC: A Guide for School Officials and the Public.