P.O. Box 909 ● Trenton, NJ 08605-0909 ● Phone: 609.695.7600 ● Fax: 609.695.0413 ● Web: www.njsba.org/PI

School Boards Association Supports Move toward National Academic Standards

PLAINSBORO, November 21, 2009 — The New Jersey School Boards Association today approved the concept of national education standards, provided that the federal government gives local school districts appropriate funding and flexibility to achieve the academic goals. States’ approval of the national standards is expected to be a criterion in the allocation of federal stimulus funds through the U.S. Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” grant program.

Approximately 138 board of education representatives attended the NJSBA Delegate Assembly, which is the organization’s major governing body. The assembly sets policies that determine what NJSBA will advocate in Trenton, Washington, D.C., and the courts. NJSBA is a federation of the state’s local boards of education.

At today’s meeting, school board members addressed a resolution that stemmed from a recent initiative spearheaded by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Administrators to develop national standards (www.corestandards.org) in language arts, math, science and social studies.

No national education standards are currently in place. However, individual states have their own standards that describe what students need to know and be able to do upon graduation. New Jersey’s standards, called the Core Curriculum Content Standards, were first adopted in 1996 and have been revised since then, with a new version set to be unveiled next month.

The recently proposed set of National Common Core Standards has support among a wide range of education organizations, including the National School Boards Association. Supporters of the national standards consider them to be a collaborative effort by the states, rather than a “top down” mandate from the federal government. Forty-eight states have participated in the developed of the education goals.

In September, the New Jersey Department of Education requested input from all education “stakeholders” on the first draft of the National Common Core Standards, which addresses mathematics and language arts. Before they could apply to New Jersey local school districts, the national standards would require adoption by the state Board of Education.

The resolution approved by the local school board representatives today does not endorse the specific content of the proposed national standards, but instead clarifies the Association’s belief in the concept of national standards. It will allow the Association to oppose, seek change in, or support the proposed goals.

The new NJSBA policy states that it is “the responsibility of the federal government to identify national interests in education, including national standards, and to provide full funding of those identified interests and initiatives. The role of the federal government should be to provide leadership in issues of national consequence that states and localities alone are unlikely to be able to meet… ”

The Delegate Assembly was followed by a discussion, “Looking to the Legislature’s Lame Duck Session and Beyond,” which featured Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, and Michael Vrancik, NJSBA’s director of governmental relations.

The New Jersey School Boards Association, a federation of district boards of education, advocates the interests of school districts, trains local school board members, and provides resources for the advancement of public education.