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TRENTON – Among the main messages delivered by state lawmakers to the Department of Education at their Thursday budget hearing: Spend the new federal aid wisely and, above all else, get schools reopened. Sen. Patrick Diegnan, D-Middlesex, said the focus on ventilation systems and educational technology is important but that it all must serve the top priority – getting kids back into classrooms. “Everywhere I go, they say the same thing: When are our kids going back in school?” Diegnan said. “I tell this story to everybody. I have a 6-year-old granddaughter who’s in kindergarten an...

Credit: (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) File photo In a bit of a surprise, the Murphy administration has won permission from the federal government to hold off on the state’s student testing program for this spring and to administer an abbreviated version in the fall. But after what turned out to be a busy 24 hours of discussion on the topic, what exactly will take place to measure student performance in the meantime remains in question, as worries mount over the potential damage the pandemic has wrought on school instruction and learning. Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday confirmed in his dail...

Most N.J. students won’t take standardized tests until fall, Murphy says Updated Apr 07, 2021; Facebook Share New Jersey will delay standardized testing for the majority of its students until the fall, allowing teachers valuable time for in-person instruction over the coming weeks, Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Education approved New Jersey’s plan for statewide testing in the fall using the new “Start Strong” exams, according to a letter it sent Tuesday. Those exams, a streamlined version of the annual New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, were piloted wi...

We must continually collect and analyze student achievement data to ensure we are truly closing learning and achievement gaps for all students across the state Patricia Morgan In recent days, Gov. Phil Murphy and acting Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan announced a comprehensive plan called “The Road Forward,” an initiative intended to mitigate challenges for students, educators and school districts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the centerpiece of this plan, the state is disbursing about $1.2 billion in new federal stimulus resources to districts to address learning gaps. This is...

"Second, we are releasing two substantial tranches of funding on March 15. In one tranche, the department will establish a pair of grant opportunities totaling $105 million to aid districts in providing additional academic and mental health supports," Allen-McMillan said. The acting commissioner for the state's Department of Education went on to explain that the Learning Acceleration Grant, consisting of $75 million, is dedicated to providing academic support, including research-based academic enrichment activities in STEM, literacy, and the arts, such as summer learning academies and one-on-...