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NJ Spotlight--Administration Soldiers On with PARCC Plans, Despite Protests from Parents State is prepared to speedily process thousands of appeals from students who fail graduation tests, officials say State education officials are preparing for a potential surge of high-school seniors who are seeking alternative routes to graduation after they fail the controversial and relatively difficult PARCC exam, which became the state’s default pathway to a diploma this year. Despite protests by parents and activists who argue that the new requirements could prevent thousands of students from graduating, especially in struggling urban districts, the Christie administration and state Board of Education are also moving forward on a plan to make passing the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) tests all but mandatory for the class of 2021...'
NJ Spotlight--State Treasurer Calls Increase in Taxes Inevitable Without Benefits Reforms
With employee costs rising 15%-20% and revenues rising 3%, official calls equation ‘unsustainable’
Spending on public-employee benefits may not be the biggest single item in the state budget, but it’s definitely one of the most controversial...'
NJ Spotlight--Administration Soldiers On with PARCC Plans, Despite Protests from Parents
State is prepared to speedily process thousands of appeals from students who fail graduation tests, officials say
State education officials are preparing for a potential surge of high-school seniors who are seeking alternative routes to graduation after they fail the controversial and relatively difficult PARCC exam, which became the state’s default pathway to a diploma this year.
Despite protests by parents and activists who argue that the new requirements could prevent thousands of students from graduating, especially in struggling urban districts, the Christie administration and state Board of Education are also moving forward on a plan to make passing the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) tests all but mandatory for the class of 2021.
This week is the start of the state’s testing period and over 100,000 students a day are taking the exams, Department of Education officials said. Those include high-schoolers who must either pass the language and math tests in 9th, 10th, or 11th grade, or else receive sufficiently high scores on alternative, fee-based tests like the SAT, ACT or PSAT or the military’s ASVAB exam.
If a student does not pass any of those tests, as a last resort districts can file an appeal asking that the student be allowed to graduate based on a review of a portfolio of the student’s academic skills.
Meir Rinde | April 7, 2016
NJ Spotlight--State Treasurer Calls Increase in Taxes Inevitable Without Benefits Reforms
With employee costs rising 15%-20% and revenues rising 3%, official calls equation ‘unsustainable’
Spending on public-employee benefits may not be the biggest single item in the state budget, but it’s definitely one of the most controversial.
The growing amount of money the state plans to dedicate to healthcare and pension benefits for state workers during the next fiscal year was hotly debated throughout a daylong Assembly Budget Committee hearing held in Trenton yesterday.
John Reitmeyer | April 7, 2016
