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N.J. to receive nearly $533 million in education aid GANNETT WASHINGTON BUREAU • OCTOBER 1, 2009 "New Jersey will receive nearly $533 million worth of federal grants for teacher and student support programs, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Thursday...The money will be used to help students at so-called Title I, or high-poverty, schools and children with disabilities...The grant funding is separate from the $100 billion in education money Congress approved as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, which President Barack Obama signed into law in February."
'N.J. schools narrowing achievement gap for minority, low-income students, study says' Star Ledger... WASHINGTON -- New Jersey schools are narrowing the achievement gap for minority and low-income students on statewide standardized reading and math tests, reflecting a nationwide trend, according to a study released today..."
N.J. to receive nearly $533 million in education aid
· WASHINGTON — New Jersey will receive nearly $533 million worth of federal grants for teacher and student support programs, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Thursday.
The money will be used to help students at so-called Title I, or high-poverty, schools and children with disabilities. Programs to improve teaching skills and beef up career and technical education are also sharing the money.
New Jersey will receive $209 million for Title I, $271 million for disabled-student education, $37 million for teacher quality programs and $16 million for career and technical education.
Nationwide, the Education Department is distributing nearly $22 billion worth of grants. Each state's share is determined by congressionally mandated formulas, which are based on population, poverty rates and school enrollment. The money will be distributed on July 1 and Oct. 1.
"Formula funding is critically important to every state and school district as we work together to prepare young children to enter school and every student for graduation," Duncan said in a statement.
The grant funding is separate from the $100 billion in education money Congress approved as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, which President Barack Obama signed into law in February.
N.J. schools narrowing achievement gap for minority, low-income students, study says
By Kristen Alloway/The Star-Ledger
October 01, 2009, 7:01PM
/The Star-LedgerRight, Lucille Davy, New Jersey Commissioner of Education in an April 28 2009 file photo.WASHINGTON -- New Jersey schools are narrowing the achievement gap for minority and low-income students on statewide standardized reading and math tests, reflecting a nationwide trend, according to a study released today.
But there is still room for improvement, noted the report from the Center on Education Policy, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C.
"To close achievement gaps in both reading and math is something to be proud of," Jack Jennings, president and CEO of CEP, said of New Jersey’s results. "It doesn’t say that’s the end of the story. The gaps are still large."
The report does not provide state-by-state comparisons, because each state offers its own set of standardized tests, Jennings said.
The "achievement gap" is a phrase used by educators to describe disparities in performance between all students and specific racial-ethnic groups, and between more affluent and low-income students. Schools around the country have worked to address it for the last decade, but the gap persists.
Some of New Jersey’s strongest gains were found in fourth-grade math tests, Jennings said. There, proficiency for African-American students grew from 39 percent to 68 percent between 2002 and 2008, according to the report. For Latino students, proficiency scores rose from 53 percent to 76 percent. Some 92 percent of white students scored proficient on the math test in 2008, an increase of 12 percentage points during that time.
New Jersey breaks down its standardized test scores in three categories: partially proficient, proficient and advanced proficient.
State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said the increased scores reflect things such as higher expectations set for high school students in math — which drives improvement in the lower grades, since kids must prepare for high school — and preschool expansion.
"Our approach to improving teaching and learning is working and the investment in our schools is paying off," Davy said.
The results in reading also showed improvement, but at a more moderate rate.
According to the report, fourth grade reading proficiency for African-American students grew from 61 percent to 67 percent between 2002 and 2008. The percentage of Latino fourth graders reaching proficiency rose from 67 percent to 73 percent during that time. Among white students, the proficiency scores increased two points to 89 percent.
"The results in New Jersey are very encouraging in math but less so in reading," Jennings said. He noted that reading scores are moving in the right direction, however.
Davy said improvement in math is greater in part because math scores started out lower.
David Sciarra, executive director of the Newark-based Education Law Center, which advocates on behalf of New Jersey’s poorest school districts, said the results show investments in those districts paid off.
The state’s 31 poorest districts were formerly known as Abbott Districts and received special extra funding. That designation ended, however, when the state Supreme Court this spring upheld a new school funding formula that spreads money more evenly to needy children across all school districts.
Along with Abbott funding, Sciarra said those districts also had a specific "framework" of programs required to help students, which he said is now "pushed aside."
"These scores are showing results under a framework which now has been dismantled," he said.
Davy took issue with that, however, saying the state still has "clear and straightforward" regulations setting expectations for school districts, and giving them options how to do it.
"The court would never have adopted our formula if we had walked away from doing what’s right in Abbott districts," she said.
She also said the test score gains reflect more than Abbott schools."More than half of African-American kids live outside the Abbott boundaries, and almost half of kids who are low income live outside of Abbott boundaries," she said.
The report, called "State Test Score Trends Through 2007-08, is available is at www.cep-dc.org
