NJSBA Expands Training on Superintendent Contracts

Bill Would Remove Public Input From Regulation Process

Accountability Regulations Could Drive Up Costs—NJSBA

NJ Graduation Rate Tops Nation

Supreme Court Rules in ‘Class of One’ Suit

Lawmakers Near Budget Deal

Accountability Act Training: What’s New for 2008-09?

Basic Training for New Board Members

NJSBA Honors Longtime Board Members

Strategic Planning Committee Members Appointed

Calendar

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New Jersey public schools lead the nation in high school graduation rates, according to a study released last week.

New Jersey’s graduation rate of 83.3 percent outpaced the national average of 70.6 percent, according to “Diplomas Count 2008,” a report by Editorial Projects in Education, a Bethesda, Md.-based organization that publishes Education Week magazine.

The graduation rate was defined as the percentage of ninth-grade students who received their diplomas on time four years later.

The graduation rates for New Jersey’s black and Hispanic students—at 62.2 percent and 64.4 percent, respectively—also outpaced national averages for those groups, but lagged behind the 87.3 percent graduation rate for white students in New Jersey. The report also found more Hispanic females graduated than Hispanic males: 67.4 percent, compared to 57 percent.

Other states with graduation rates of at least 80 percent included Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Nevada’s graduation rate of 45.4 percent was the lowest in the nation.

The graduation report is just one that has rated New Jersey public schools among the best in the nation. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, called the “Nation’s Report Card,” found Garden State eighth graders scored highest in the nation in writing, and New Jersey fourth and eighth graders rated among the best in the nation in fourth-grade and eighth-grade reading and math. The College Board reports that New Jersey students rate high in SAT participation as well as scores on Advanced Placement tests.