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NJ Spotlight--NJ DOE Tips Its Hand on New Proposal for Student Assessments
Department also delivers mixed results of last year’s statewide testing, with only about half of students passing math and language-arts exams
New Jersey has long been at war with itself over how best to test its public schoolchildren. As a result, the standardized assessments have changed every few years — each time touching off debates over how high to set the bar and what ages should be evaluated.
John Mooney | September 5, 2019
NJ Spotlight--After-School Suppers Offer Another Weapon Against Childhood Hunger
Participation in supper programs is rising rapidly, but new data reveals just 6 percent of eligible students sit down to a hot meal after school
Schools, nonprofit organizations, and local officials in several dozen New Jersey communities are attacking child hunger on another front, serving close to a half-million suppers to more than 23,000 children across the state.
Colleen O'Dea | September 5, 2019
Star Ledger--N.J.'s standardized test scores are in and they aren’t much better
Five years into a controversial set of standardized exams, many New Jersey students are still struggling to make the grade, and statewide gains in test scores are starting to level off.
Fewer than 64 percent of students scored proficient on each of the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (formerly known as PARCC) in grades 3-10 last year, according to results released Wednesday before the state Board of Education.
Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com| Posted Sep 4, 6:51 PM
Star Ledger--N.J. has the No. 1 public schools in the nation, ranking says
New Jersey has the best state education system in the country thanks largely to the high amount of money it spends on its schools, according to a new national ranking.
Education Week, a national industry publication, looked at 39 categories, including school finance, academic achievement and socioeconomic factors, to rank the states’ school systems for its annual “Quality Counts” report.
https://www.nj.com/news/2019/09/nj-has-the-best-public-schools-in-the-nation-ranking-says.html
Kelly Heyboer | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com| Updated Sep 4, 11:06 AM; Posted Sep 4, 10:32 AM
Education Week--In National Ranking of School Systems, a New State Is On Top
Nation earns a grade of C amid mixed state showing
New Jersey takes the top spot in the newly released "Quality Counts 2019," the 23rd annual report card of state education systems issued by the Education Week Research Center, while the nation as a whole once again earns a C grade despite some jockeying for position among individual states.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/09/04/new-jersey-tops-national-ranking-of-schools.html
Sterling C. Lloyd and Alex Harwin| September 3, 2019
Edutopia--A Simple Practice Yields Big Results in Middle School For Less Than $2
A new study shows how a low-cost writing exercise improves the sense of belonging for incoming middle school students.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/simple-practice-yields-big-results-middle-school-less-2
Laura Lee| August 26, 2019
