In the final several weeks of 2023, Voices identified several issues about which it told its readers it did not have sufficient information and would seek to obtain it in the new year. Three of those issues were:
1)In the final several weeks of 2023, Voices identified several issues about which it did not have sufficient information and would seek to obtain it in the new year. Three of those issues were:
1) obtaining information cited by several Council members on 12/12/2023 about the expenditures of public funds made by the Holocaust Memorial Committee and the Enslaved Africans Memorial Committee seeking to implement two monuments on the Municipal Green. These were originally a joint single effort but are now separate endeavors – see Res. 362-2023 and 367-2023);
2) Buried in the Council’s 12/12/2023 meeting Consent and not identified as such is the 18-page planner's summary of the October 20, 2023 second meeting on plans the American Legion Drive AINR. We found it an placed it on our website; and
3) Clarification of what is NJGPA, the state test being failed by seniors at Teaneck High School that has led to official statements that this threat to the graduation of many THS students is the sole reason for the Board of Education making personnel changes in THS leadership. Voices now has information on all three issues:
1) Expenditures made/approved by the entities seeking to implement the monuments on the Green: Voices OPRA’d the public records related to the financial transactions resulting in expenditures by or approved by these two private entities. The results of that OPRA are now, without comment, found on a page on the Teaneck Voices’ website (Click Here)
2) A summary of the second public meeting held at the Rodda Center on 10/20/2023 about plans for the American Legion Drive (ALD) Area that is now identified as an Area in Need of Redevelopment (AINR) got lost in the Council’s agenda packet for its final 2023 meeting. The ALD meeting was attended by more than 100 residents many of whom found the meeting disappointing. The Town’s planners served as conveners of the meeting’s three breakout groups and then produced an 18-page summary of what they took away from the meeting. We found their summary and believe our readers will likely want to compare notes with what is in this summary. It is now found on Teaneck Voices’ website Click Here
3) What is NJGPA, the NJ state test the potential failure of which is looming over so many THS seniors? When Voices began exploring this question, its discussions with former educator and BOE and Council member Dr. Henry Pruitt led to his providing us with a cogent critical review and assessment of this New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment (NJGPA) test. We have shortened his assessment and provide it below as a letter to Voices’ editors which like all such letters represents the views of this well-qualified author:
The Time Has Come For NJ's Department Of Education To Reexamine Some Of Its Assessment Practices
In response to an earlier article in the RECORD:
The high school diploma exit exam otherwise known as New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment (NJGPA) needs to be discontinued for several reasons.
Assessment of Students
Educational assessment is a vital requirement to point out Instructional weaknesses so that corrective measures can be put Into place. Individual student assessment takes place in the classroom: The teacher provides Instruction, students take notes. the teacher prepares an examination that measures student proficiency relative to the specific subject matter covered in the class, students study for the exam and then take it. Student achievement is largely dependent on the quality of instruction received and the students' motivation to learn that subject in that particular class.
There are other high stakes examinations that students take in seeking college acceptance. The SAT is an example of that kind of examination. SAT Test prep is exhausting. Economically able students often go to commercial test prep classes who guarantee a score that is significantly higher than what students may get if they do not attend these classes. Nonetheless, the SAT, even with its built-in inequities, tests college applicants across the country. Colleges compare student transcripts, class rank, GPA, SAT scores, letters of recommendation and often an essay. But since the NJGPA tests student ONLY in New Jersey it has little meaning.
The NJGPA
The NJGPA is an exit examination that determines whether or not a NJ student will receive a state certified high school diploma. This test is required for a diploma even If all other high school graduation requirements are satisfied. This (Language Arts-Mathematics Assessment Is supposed to measure whether or not graduating public high school students in New Jersey, have “The Skills They Need To Function ln A Democratic Society.” Can those skills really be measured with this kind of an assessment?
Specific Reasons Why this Kind of Test Should be Discontinued
• This test was not field tested.
• Thirty-nine states no longer use exit examinations for high school diplomas.
• Federal law does not require exit exams.
• . There are over eight hundred and fifty high schools in New Jersey. Roughly six hundred of those are public and approximately two hundred and fifty are private. There are no state requirements for private high schools to take the NJGPA. Private school diplomas are given to students who meet the requirements for high school graduation.
• Students who take the GED are not required to take the NJGPA.
• Students who do not score at least 725 on the NJGPA must find an alternative means to meet this diploma requirement.
Finding alternatives is stressful for both students and faculty.
Developing alternatives puts a tremendous burden on the school staff, causing some students to not meet the alternative assessment.
- An extra burden is placed on teachers to develop and evaluate alternatives.
- There is a loss of valuable Instructional time
- It is neither fair nor educational to add to a student’s anxiety about graduation and create stress when the student has met all of the other requirements for graduation. Many of them already have been accepted
- at the college of their choice.
Who Benefits From The Administration Of This Exam?
• The only beneficiary that I can find is the test creator. How many tax payers’ dollars are paid to the company that put the test together in the first place. This money should be given to poorly performing districts to help them Improve their educational performance.
Update
• It is my understanding that the NJGPA is being discussed in the legislature. I hope that they conclude that the right thing to do is to eliminate this examination. Thirty nine out of fifty states have already made that decision.
Henry Pruitt
201-837-1838
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