By Ray Pinney

They both arrived at the new Jersey State House at about the same time and attend the same Assembly Education Committee Meetings, but their paths rarely cross. One is a Republican and one a Democrat, one an assemblywoman, while the other is the chief of staff to an assemblyman. One co-sponsored the recent school construction bill; the other’s boss opposed it.

At first glance, Assemblywoman Mila Jasey and Ann Mary O’Rourke, chief of staff to Assemblyman Scott T. Rumana, seem very different politically. There are indeed differences, but these women are also remarkably similar in many ways.

They share a commitment to children and both believe that board members can be better advocates for their districts than they realize. When each woman ran for her local school board, she never dreamed it would lead to a position in the State House and being considered a “Trenton insider.” In many ways, their paths have run on parallel tracks. Both women started as leaders in their children’s school and parent organizations. That led them to join their local school boards, where they both served as board president. Both commanded the respect and caught the attention of others in their community, including local politicians.

And, now, as former board members who are part of New Jersey’s legislative community, they have a similar message for others still serving on a local school board: you have more influence than you think, and it is vitally important that you stay informed on legislative issues, and advocate for public schools.

Mila M. Jasey, Assemblywoman, District 27 The phone call came out of the blue. “Can you come to a meeting this afternoon with (Assemblyman John) McKeon and (former Governor and Senate President Richard) Codey?” asked an aide to McKeon that Jasey knew. “Sure. What do they want to discuss?” asked Mila Jasey, then a board member on the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education. “Haven’t you been reading the papers?” he shot back. Then-Assemblyman Mims Hackett had been caught in an FBI sting, and had resigned from the state assembly. The aide told Jasey the two wanted to talk with her about the possibility of being appointed to finish out Hackett’s term, and then running for election in the 27th legislative district. Her first response: “Are you kidding?” Her shock was understandable—she was not a party insider, by any measure. She had been on the school board since 1999, but had not held other elective office. But she apparently impressed McKeon and Codey; she became their first choice, and went on to win over the rest of the Democratic leaders in Essex County. Though she had begun to think about a new chapter in her life since her three children were grown, she had not expected this. She talked it over with her husband, Neil, a retired corporate attorney, and he gave her the same advice he had when a group had come to her years earlier to see if she would join the school board and finish out the term of a departing member: “Why don’t you try it? If you don’t like it, you can leave.” Mila Jasey said yes (in both cases) and became an “accidental assemblywoman.” She ran for election this year, and won her seat. She’s now serving her first full term, and is relishing the opportunity to work on issues that are important to her, especially education.

Ann Mary O’Rourke, Chief of Staff to Scott Rumana, Assemblyman, District 40 She automatically stopped and began to turn away at the sign on the door that read “Legislators and Staff Only.” Another aide, who was giving her a tour of the State House, gently reminded her that it was okay to proceed; that, as chief of staff to a new legislator, she was entitled to go through the door. That’s when it hit Ann Mary O’Rourke that she worked at the state legislature. As she sat in the Assembly Chambers and looked up at the domed ceiling, the chandeliers, the stained glass, and even the lights on the wall indicating how the members were voting, O’Rourke couldn’t help but be a bit awed. Maybe the pageantry and ceremony of the chamber will become stale over time but during that first voting session she attended, it all seemed magical and “cool.” She never imagined when she was a PTO mom, lobbying the school board for more playground aides, that it would lead to running for a seat on the school board and then working as the chief of staff to a legislator, Assemblyman Scott Rumana. Ann Mary O’Rourke first ran for the school board in the Passaic County community of Wayne when a referendum failed that she felt the district really needed. She jokingly says “I got involved to raise taxes” to the chagrin of her current boss, who is a fiscal conservative.

Rumana, then mayor of Wayne, and several others approached Ann O’Rourke to run for the town council after they saw the way she handled herself on the school board and how hard she worked. She served with Rumana on the Wayne town council, and campaigned for him when he ran for state assembly. But the job of chief of staff to Assemblyman Rumana never really occurred to her, until she was approached by someone else who told her they’d be interested in the job. When she passed on that information to Rumana, he mentioned that he’d like to see her as his chief of staff. She talked it over with her husband and children and decided to go for it.

As Rumana’s chief of staff, she has been able to inform and educate him on many matters, especially those dealing with education. As a new legislator, he was forced to become knowledgeable on a variety of issues right away and he said that Ann Mary’s dedication and intelligence has made this transition easier and that he is “light years ahead of where I would have been” without her. “I probably wouldn’t have gone on the education committee without someone like her on my side,” said Rumana, “she has immersed herself in the details of education policy.”

School Board Service as a Training Ground Ann Mary O’Rourke and Mila Jasey both found themselves in their legislative jobs almost by accident. They had not directly sought these positions, and had certainly not plotted and schemed for years to get to Trenton.

But it wasn’t accidental that they had both spent years serving their communities, and developing their leadership skills and their expertise in education, as well as the acquiring the confidence that they could tackle other challenges.

Both women believe that serving on a school board was excellent training for their current positions. For Mila Jasey, her tenure on the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education really helped prepare her for serving in the Assembly. Her school board elections involved hotly contested races, where it was not unusual for incumbents to lose reelection campaigns. As a board member she was active in the Essex County School Boards Association, so she was familiar with the other school districts within her legislative district. Her eight years on the board provided her with valuable knowledge, which she believes has helped her on the Assembly Education Committee. Her confidence in her expertise led her, upon meeting Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts right before being sworn in, to request a spot on the Education Committee.

Both remember some very difficult school board meetings. “You are making decisions about peoples’ children, and of course they are passionate about their children,” said Ann Mary O’Rourke. She remembers the meeting she ran as a board president when the board was redistricting. “Three hundred people came to the meeting, and each one had a comment to make,” she says. Mila Jasey has been struck by the “civility” of the discourse in Trenton. “At school board meetings, I was used to people yelling at me,” she said. “Here even if they disagree, they are civil.”

Both feel that the difficult role of a school board member is not understood by many in Trenton, but that being a school board member is good training for serving in state government.

Advice to Current Board Members If there is one regret both women have about their school board service, it is that they did not realize the potential influence they could have had on their state legislators. They believe they should have been more vocal advocates for their school districts than they were.

“I didn’t realize the access we all have to legislators,” said Assemblywoman Jasey. Ann Mary O’Rourke echoed that view. “When I was a board member, it never would have occurred to me to contact Kevin (Kevin O’Toole was her assemblyman), although I don’t know why,” she said. Both feel that local school districts, and especially board members, should communicate more regularly with their state representatives. O’Rourke believes several school districts should work together within the legislative district and communicate issues to their legislators because the message is more powerful when it comes from several districts rather than just one.

Assemblywoman Jasey recommends that board members take several steps to be effective advocates. They should establish a relationship with their legislators, and invite them into the schools to observe what’s happening in the schools—both the good and the bad. “When legislation is being discussed, talk about the specific impact the legislation will have on your district,” said Jasey. She saw first-hand the impact that a visit to the Cleveland Street School in Orange had on Assemblyman Joseph Cryan and Assemblywoman Joan Voss, regarding their support for the school construction funding bill. They visited a school that would benefit from the bill and saw the need for funding, which solidified their support. Jasey said that she tells people she is always open to meeting with constituents, and is willing to listen to their concerns, but finds it helpful if they come “with a plan or solution to the issue.” Finally she urges board members to get involved early in the process; once the bill gets to the floor for a vote “you pretty much know” its fate.

While both women urge board members to communicate with their legislators, both have reached out to school leaders in their communities. Assemblyman Rumana has met with all the school board presidents and superintendents in his legislative district, while Assemblywoman Jasey arranged a meeting with the school district superintendents and the legislators from District 27, as well as with representatives from Governor Corzine’s office during the school funding formula deliberations.

The School Funding Formula For Mila Jasey, the school funding formula was an education in politics being “the art of the possible.” She did not support the bill at the time it came up for a vote for a couple of reasons. This vote was one of her first votes, and was very difficult, especially since she also was bucking her colleague Richard Codey. She felt she was “rushed” and she “questioned the numbers being used to determine adequacy.” That is a point she still questions. But a few months down the road, she has come to look at the law a bit differently. “In hindsight, while I still am not entirely happy with the bill, given the economic situation we are in now, it was probably a good thing,” she said, although she warns that the true impact will probably be felt over a period of two or three years. She would urge districts to document the impact of the formula over the next year or so, and to communicate their concerns to their legislators.

Partisan Politics in Trenton One thing that surprised both women about Trenton, and something they would like to change, is how fiercely partisan the State House is. They report that while legislators are respectful and polite to one another, they rarely have substantive discussions with members of the opposite party. According to the former board members, discussions and dialogues are pretty much restricted to party caucuses. As board members, they are used to working in a non-partisan environment. The State House is, at best, a bi-partisan environment. “I’d like to see us find a way to work less along party lines and more along policy lines,” said Jasey. O’Rourke notes that the separation extends to committee seating. “Democrats are on one side and Republicans are on another. Why not mix it up?” she asked.

This partisanship is probably the reason why these two women’s paths have not crossed. Like railroad tracks that never meet, but continue on in the same direction, both women carry a similar message: that board members could be more powerful advocates if they choose to be, that they should actively advocate on behalf of their schools, and that being a good board member builds leadership that others notice.

O’Rourke reminds current board members, “if you can make it through your local school board you can make it anywhere!” In the case of Mila Jasey and Ann Mary O’Rourke, that includes the State House in Trenton.

Ray Pinney is grassroots coordinator/lobbyist for NJSBA. He can be reached at rpinney@njsba.org.

High Schools for the Future

A report on the recommendations of the N.J. High School Redesign Committee

By Mary O'Malley

Success in the 21st Century will require students to master different and higher-level academic skills than were necessary to make a living in the last century.

Last spring, a suggested framework for preparing every New Jersey student for the realities of the future was unveiled by the New Jersey High School Redesign Steering Committee. This new plan, titled NJ STEPS: Re-Designing Education in New Jersey for the 21st Century, outlines what young people need to know to be prepared for lifelong learning.

The New Jersey High School Redesign Steering Committee, co-chaired by Governor Jon Corzine, Art Ryan, retired chairman of Prudential Financial, and Dr. Susan Cole, president, Montclair State University, proposes fundamental changes in NJ public education that will affect students in all grades.

The recommendations focus on five areas: standards and high school graduation requirements, assessment alignment, teachers and school leaders, learning communities and personalized education, and P-16 (preschool to year four of college) alignment. These recommendations will be phased-in over time to ensure that students, parents and educators have enough time to prepare.

According to Art Ryan, “Years ago, a strong back and willing heart were enough to allow a person to make a decent living. Today, the ability to use your brain will determine your success.”

Research conducted by Achieve Inc., an organization formed by governors and business leaders to raise academic standards and achievement, shows that an unprecedented convergence has occurred in the necessary knowledge and skills required for students to be successful in a 21st century economy. Today’s students-—whether they choose to pursue an apprenticeship, two-year college, four-year college, or entry-level employment—need to be prepared to the same standard.

The recommendations set a threshold for giving students the knowledge and experiences they will need to move beyond an entry-level job, to complete an apprenticeship in a trade, or to finish their degree.

Members of the New Jersey High School Redesign Steering Committee include the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA), New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association (NJPSA), New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), the Business Coalition for Educational Excellence (BCEE) at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, New Jersey Commission on Higher Education, New Jersey United for Higher School Standards (NJU), New Jersey Presidents’ Council, and Montclair State University.

“The Task Force has admirably addressed every aspect of high school education and the potential for its seamless integration into higher education in New Jersey,” said Governor Corzine in accepting the report. “We have an obligation and a vested economic interest to equip our high school students with the tools they need to build successful lives. These recommendations are a blueprint for this process.”

The Case for High School Reform Historically, New Jersey public schools have had an impressive record of success. New Jersey has the largest percentage of three- and four- year -olds enrolled in high quality preschool—allowing students to begin their educational journey with a good foundation.

The state’s fourth- and eighth-grade students are showing improved achievement on tests. New Jersey is one of the top two states in reading and in the top five in math on the 2007 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) test. New Jersey eighth-graders also scored the best in the nation on the recent NAEP in writing for their grade level.

At the high school level, New Jersey ranks first in the nation among schools offering Advanced Placement (AP) courses. New Jersey students also score among the highest in the nation on Advanced Placement exams. In addition, the state has one of the top high school graduation rates in the nation. With such positive results, New Jersey is providing a strong academic foundation for many students.

But there is still room for improvement. A number of students don’t graduate from high school, and many who do are under prepared for apprenticeships, college, and the workforce. For example, approximately 40 percent of students entering the state’s public colleges and universities required remediation, while the number reaches a staggering 77 percent at New Jersey’s community colleges according to the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education.

Five Areas of Focus Feedback and input from New Jersey educators and the general public collected through meetings across the state in 2006 and 2007 were used to make recommendations. Focused meetings were held with key stakeholder groups and an advisory committee also provided input on recommendations. In addition, the Steering Committee consulted with representatives from other states, reviewed research, and participated in a number of conferences to collect information on best practices. Below are the recommendations for the five areas of focus:

Standards and High School Graduation Requirements A major goal of the Steering Committee is to help align New Jersey high school standards and graduation requirements to college and workforce entry requirements. According to reviews by Achieve Inc., New Jersey’s high school standards and graduation requirements in language arts literacy and mathematics did not specifically reflect the knowledge and skills necessary for success in credit-bearing coursework in higher education or entry-level, well-paying jobs. Currently, New Jersey does not require all students to complete a college and work-ready curriculum to graduate from high school, and local graduation requirements also vary widely.

As a result, the committee’s proposed NJ STEPS Graduation Requirements recommend requiring all students to learn Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Biology, Chemistry, and .5 years of Economics, along with current state requirements to earn a high school diploma.

Assessment Alignment The committee also recommends a new approach for testing students on the proposed graduation requirements. A new Language Arts Proficiency Assessment, along with end of course exams in math (Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry), and science (Biology and Chemistry) should replace the New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).

Teachers and School Leaders The Steering Committee proposes a partnership with key stakeholders to research, identify, and implement appropriate recruitment initiatives for teachers and education leaders. Additional suggestions include evaluating and improving teacher preparation programs in the state, and evaluating and implementing proven models of professional development for New Jersey educators.

Learning Communities and Personalized Education The committee recommends redesigning high schools as “learning communities” that utilize personalized learning approaches to prepare and support students in meeting the new standards and high school graduation requirements. Specific recommendations include providing increased technical assistance to local education leaders, and implementing data-based decision making programs.

P-16 Alignment The report recommends creating a P-16 Council that would work to ensure a seamless and aligned system of public education from preschool through four years of college. This diverse group should include key leaders from P-16 education, business, industry, trade unions, government, parents, and the overall community.

Moving to Implementation The New Jersey Department of Education has already begun initiatives focused on helping districts implement this plan. These include creating greater coordination between the urban high school reform initiatives and other high school efforts underway in the state, establishing a professional development collaborative to support schools in key areas of reform, and ongoing participation in joint assessment development with other states that are members of the American Diploma Project Network.

The adoption of these recommendations could also allow New Jersey to participate in a new institute supported by the Gates Foundation. The institute will be supported by organizations such as Achieve, Jobs for the Future, the Data Quality Campaign, and the National Governor’s Association. Its mission will be to help states actively involved in statewide high school reform. Collectively, the states would identify and resolve issues related to reform implementation. The institute is expected to start its efforts this fall.

Many states across the nation have already implemented rigorous high school graduation requirements. Many school districts in New Jersey already require students to take higher-level courses such as Algebra II and Physics to graduate. Beginning this fall, state regulations require that all high schools provide students with a college preparatory curriculum that requires Algebra I and Biology. There are lessons to be learned from each of these efforts.

The challenges that lie ahead for New Jersey students are great. They will embark upon a future that may include multiple career changes and require further learning. Only by seamlessly aligning a system that focuses on preparing students for lifelong learning will we ensure they have the tools to succeed. Our state’s future prosperity depends on how well we work together to make this happen.

For more information on the New Jersey High School Redesign Steering Committee, or to download a copy of the NJ STEPS policy paper, please visit www.njhighschoolsummit.org.

Red Bank Regional’s superintendent discusses the inadequacies of NCLB

By Dr. Edward Westervelt

The Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation presents a continual challenge to diverse districts like Red Bank Regional High School District. The district has instituted innovative programs and made substantial gains, but is still tagged with a single NCLB label: “In Need of Improvement.”

The NCLB legislation requires a school district to statistically separate student populations within a school into specific subgroups and evaluates the achievement of each subgroup on statewide tests. For high schools in New Jersey, that test is the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) given in the 11th grade. Individual students can belong to more than one subgroup; their individual achievement then affects the achievement rating for more than one subgroup. Labels are assigned under NCLB to districts based upon the achievement of these subgroups, and incrementally harsh penalties may be imposed on districts for the continued underperformance of any subgroup(s).

Red Bank Regional High School has more than twenty students (the number required for reporting purposes) in every category or student subgroup measured by No Child Left Behind. The school also has had 35 or more special education students in the 11th grade over the last several years. Minority students comprise roughly 25 percent of the high school population. Along with a growing English Language Learner population, and a sizeable economically disadvantaged population, approximately 13 percent of its students are classified as special education students.

Significant changes have taken place in the school of approximately 1200 students over the last several years, and its staff is working hard to improve learning and the lives of the children it serves. RBR, as its students call it, has many unique attributes, but one that it would like to lose is its designation as a school that is “In Need of Improvement.”

No Child Left Behind may not be fair in how it represents and labels schools, and many of its provisions are increasingly controversial, but it is the reality we live with today in public education. While the legislation enacted by the Bush administration is now up for reauthorization, it doesn’t look like its fundamental mandates will be left behind any time soon. In New Jersey, annual testing of all juniors in language arts and math will continue, and now the Department of Education has dictated an end-of-year biology exam (added in May of 2008). Moreover, the N.J. state benchmarks for proficiency were raised for the 2007- 2008 school-year testing.

Early Efforts to Add Rigor and Provide Support Seven years ago, our district started to eliminate lower level “general” classes. The initiative began with freshman English. General level students were integrated into college prep classes. Those students identified as needing support and remediation were scheduled into daily second English classes, titled Enrichment classes. Although there was some resistance from parents and staff, the change progressed to include the sophomore English classes the second year. Evaluation data at the end of the first year showed that the former college prep students did as well as they had before, while the general level students improved their performance significantly. Math followed in subsequent years. Math teachers discovered by analyzing data that students who did not take both algebra and geometry generally failed the HSPA math assessment. Lower level math classes were gradually phased out as a result and nearly all students now take algebra and geometry.

While efforts were underway to phase out lower-level classes, more demanding Advanced Placement classes were added. The number of AP classes at RBR has risen from five to nineteen over the last nine years. Additionally, the school has dictated that any student taking an AP class must take the AP test. The board subsequently subsidized students opting to take AP courses by paying a portion of the AP test fees. This was enacted to provide opportunities for economically disadvantaged students. For the last six years, program involvement and test scores have risen. In the 2006-2007 school year, 70% of AP test scores were 3 or higher. (See chart above).

During this period, two other initiatives were launched. The school district wrote a grant in 2000 in partnership with the Red Bank YMCA to start a school-based Youth Services Program. The program was the brainchild of the Student Assistance Counselor, who determined that many children had needs not being met by community-based programs. The school won the grant from the Department of Human Services and the program was launched! It soon grew to be known as The Source and quickly received acclaim from local and state organizations as well as the media.

The Source program not only provides counseling and medical and dental care, as it collaborates with Planned Parenthood, Hispanic Affairs, the Parker Clinic and local churches, it also provides tutoring during lunch hours and after school and fosters scholarship through the “Encourage an A” program—a merchant-supported program that provides gifts as incentives for excellent achievement.

Renovations to Expand the Academy Concept The other initiative was a $15 million bond referendum. Built more than thirty years ago, the school had approximately sixty percent of its space dedicated to open-space classrooms. The short-lived instructional fad inhibited good instruction because of noise distractions and other inconveniences, but the staff lived with this condition for decades. The construction plan called for redesign of these spaces to accommodate closed classrooms, wired for instructional technology. The plan also called for redesign of an automotive shop and building trades area to house future technology classes and an emerging Academy of Information Technology. Two other academies had been in existence: the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts and the Academy of Finance. It was reasoned that technology programs would better equip students for high paying jobs, and the program would attract better tuition-paying students from the surrounding area. The school had, heretofore, accepted tuition students into its other state-approved occupational programs. The academy concept also helped reconfigure the school into smaller learning communities, a concept supported by research.

Today, the district has approximately 290 tuition students attending one of three academies. The Academy of Information Technology has aligned itself with NAF (the National Academy Foundation) and the Rochester Institute of Technology to offer a four-year, pre-engineering program, called Project Lead the Way. Students applying to RBR from other districts must pass application criteria (audition, portfolio, etc.) and must score proficient on the NJASK8 test. No longer do the tuition students dampen HSPA results. Without adding to our HSPA liability by accepting non-proficient students, we can focus our efforts on remediating students from our residential districts.

Extending the School Year To further improve the achievement of RBR students, the district has initiated several summer programs targeting specific student populations. Summer Slam, started six years ago, identifies under-performing (at-risk) 8th grade students coming from sending middle schools to the high school. The program attempts to place them on a positive footing as they enter the high school. Some academic instruction in writing and math is provided, but mostly, the staff attempts to orient the students to high school expectations and an effort is made to get students connected or involved in a team or club. Staff members monitor these individual students as they move through the freshman year. A summer Leadership Class was started three years ago to work with rising 10th grade students, mostly minority, to have them assume leadership roles within the school and encourage them to enroll in more challenging coursework, specifically honors and AP. Staff working with these programs also partner with one of the local churches on the west side of Red Bank, which organizes SAT prep courses and college tours of historically black colleges.

Meeting the Challenge of ELL In 2006 and again in 2008, Red Bank Regional was chosen by the New Jersey Statewide Association on Bi-Lingual Education for the Model ESL Program Award. Yet, many of our English Language Learner students struggle to learn English and enough mathematics to score proficient on the HSPA. The issue is not just language acquisition, but skill and content knowledge, since many of our ELL students come to this country with gaps in their formal education. Many arrive here from Mexico as teenagers and are registered as ninth or tenth graders, when, in fact, they have had few years of formal education.

The drop-out rate for Latinos had been high over the last several years because many students had to work to support themselves and their families. Then too, because many were undocumented and did not have the means to attend college, they became disheartened. This sense of hopelessness was broken thanks to the generosity of a local patron who wanted to provide a path to college for ELL students. Ten top-performing Latino students were selected the first year of the program (subsidized by a community member) to take coursework at nearby Brookdale Community College while still seniors in high school. The dual credit program provided a sense of hope by offering an opportunity for college for these students, who otherwise might never have thought college was possible. Successful students in this program are rewarded with scholarships to Brookdale to complete their Associate degrees. Other organizations, such as the Latino Chamber of Commerce and the Community Foundation have lent support to the program, allowing more students to enter it each year and allowing some students to continue at four-year schools.

HSPA Scores Lag Despite all of these programs designed to bolster the achievement of targeted groups, the school was identified, three years ago, as “In Need of Improvement” under NCLB. While HSPA subgroup scores have seen gradual improvement over the last several years, and while the school has moved from attaining 35 of 41 indicators to 38 of 41 indicators, Hispanic subgroup scores, special education scores and economically disadvantaged scores are below the state benchmarks (see chart on page 31).

Last year, Red Bank Regional administered a practice HSPA to all sophomores and juniors in October. After scores were returned to teachers, underperforming students were provided with individual tutoring during lunch periods and after school. Some, but not all, took advantage of this help, even as parents were advised and urged to support the effort. All 10th and 11th grade students were assessed for proficiency using a software program called Study Island. Students were urged to spend time during the school day and at home using the program, while administrators monitored their progress.

New Strategies Planned With a new administration, including several new supervisors, a new principal and a new assistant principal, the school is looking at four fresh initiatives to bolster student achievement. The first is to create a freshman academy—a strategy designed to break up the freshman class into groups of about eighty to one hundred students, each group with a common set of academic teachers. As much as possible, the freshman would be contained in a second floor portion of the building. The freshman academy would provide a small learning community for students and would facilitate monitoring of student achievement and attendance.

The second initiative is an extension of the first. After the freshman year, students not included in the Visual and Performing Arts Academy, the Academy of Information Technology or the Academy of Finance, would choose from among four academically focused disciplines: Humanities, International and Global Studies, Math and Science, and Sports Medicine and Management. These focused academic themes would result in additional smaller learning communities or academies. Students would have several teachers in common and curriculum would reflect an academic focus, e.g. global and international studies. The district submitted a grant application to the Department of Education in July, 2007 to support implementation of these new academies.

The third initiative, one that has been tried before in this district, was to modify the daily schedule from a traditional nine-period, forty-one minute period day to an A/B block schedule with an advisory period in the middle of the day. The move to a block schedule is slated to begin in September 2009.

A fourth initiative being planned for the 2009-2010 school year is the introduction of an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. While the school has expanded its Advanced Placement course offerings and has seen a dramatic rise in the number of students scoring 3 or better, the International Baccalaureate Program will provide even more rigor across the curriculum. Unlike AP, in the IB program student success does not simply rely upon a good grade on an end-of-year test. IB relies heavily upon writing with fewer topics and greater depth.

“The Problem” in Perspective So, what’s the problem? The school district has made significant progress in increasing the rigor of its curricular offerings. It has renovated the building to provide an optimum teaching/learning environment while investing heavily in technology. It has created support programs for “at risk” students. It has developed a model ELL program and fostered dual-credit opportunities. It has hired dynamic, insightful new teachers and supervisors with incentives built into the labor contract for all teaching staff to attain higher level degrees (at minimum, a Masters’ Degree). It has applied for a Smaller Learning Communities grant; it has laid the groundwork for a block schedule and an International Baccalaureate program. What is the problem?

The problem is that NCLB is punitive in nature and does not recognize a school’s efforts to maximize learning. NCLB simply looks at test scores in one moment of time. It does not recognize “value added” to student performance, nor does it recognize the sweat and energy school staff put into their jobs. Changes in the composition of one 11th grade class and another taking the test may be quite significant, but that does not matter with NCLB. NCLB doesn’t take into account what unique characteristics define a school’s ELL populations. NCLB doesn’t differentiate between the classifications of Learning Disabled, Emotionally Disturbed or Moderately Cognitively Impaired. It classifies them all as Special Education. If even one of forty-one indicators falls below the state-established benchmarks, the school, and perhaps district, is labeled as failing.

Improving test scores takes time and much effort. Improving test scores force redirection of available resources, which, in New Jersey, are limited due to state-imposed budget caps. Competing interests vie for the limited funding that is available and create tensions among administrators, teachers and even board members. The problem is not that the school is failing to improve. The problem is not that teachers are ineffective. The problem is not that the school principal and administrators fail to use data to make informed decisions about curriculum and programs, or fail to monitor results. The problem is not with the school district! The problem is that NCLB is flawed in its design and flawed in how it measures Annual Yearly Progress.

Nevertheless, Planning for Improvement Continues…In August of 2007, Red Bank Regional High School was notified by the State Education Department that the district’s status under NCLB had been changed to “Hold” as a result of increased sub-group performance on the March, 2007 HSPA. At press time, results for the 2008 HSPA have not yet been released by the education department.

In September of 2007, Red Bank Regional High School was notified by the United States Department of Education that it had been awarded a federal grant of $1.25 million to implement the Smaller Learning Communities grant program. The planning for introduction of four new academies is now under way and slated to begin for sophomores in September, 2009.

Dr. Edward Westervelt is the superintendent of the Red Bank Regional High School district. He can be reached at ewestervelt@rbrhs.org.