Now is the time for the state to step forward and issue three challenges, challenges focused on outcomes and students. For instance, scrap efforts to award high school diplomas to anyone who is 18 and with a pulse and ensure that a NJ high school diploma means more than an attendance certificate. Figure out what is working in places like Newark and replicating those programs and initiatives in other struggling urban centers. Implement a real strategic plan for charter school expansion across the state. Even figure out the best practices that can be learned from the Abbott Schools, and apply them in other schools (without the promise of big dollars).Sounds good, and Riccards’ first suggestion – stop giving a high school diploma to anyone “who is 18 and with a pulse” -- is already underway, thanks to the DOE out-sourcing the scoring of our Alternative High School Assessment. (Of course, just about every kids failed, which led to protests, concessions from the DOE (see this memo from Deputy Commissioner Willa Spicer) and a new round of scoring. The challenge is not revising our graduation process; it’s copping to the fact that a significant cohort of 18-year-olds go through NJ public high schools and can’t pass a middle-school level test. Only then can we have any meaningful discussions about measuring high school achievement, or lack therof.)
Labels: AHSA, preschools, RTTT