New rules for curriculum in Abbott school districts

Changes will address No Child Left Behind requirements

BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

The N.J. Department of Education (DOE) has adopted new guidelines to improve learning and literacy in Abbott school districts such as Long Branch.

“The new rules deal with the curriculum in [Abbott] districts,” spokesman Ronald Rice said Tuesday. “It is a point of the DOE to always fine-tune and make the system better for student achievement.”

On Sept. 22, acting Commissioner of the DOE Lucille E. Davy adopted the new list of guidelines to increase efficiency in Abbott school districts for the 2005-2006 school year, Rice said.

Under the new guidelines, Abbott school districts and schools will be required to replace their three-year operational plan and the school districts’ preschool three-year plan that expire in the 2005-2006 year with a two-year report on instructional priorities, according to the DOE Web site.

“Districts were once required to prepare operational plans, which laid out how curriculum would be implemented throughout three years,” Rice said.

The change from the three-year plan to the two-year report was made to address the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requirements for two-year plans in districts, to improve articulation between preschool and kindergarten and eliminate multiple plans that are now currently required in schools.

“The new regulations will make sure that Abbott districts are in compliance with the NCLB Act,” Rice said. “Now there will be one set of guidelines rather than several that must be enforced.”

The two-year report will focus on the following objectives:

• Intensive early and middle grades literacy measured by Language Arts Literacy, ASK3, ASK4 and GEPA tests with a status report from the schools documenting the implementation of Abbott practices, such as small group instruction, classroom libraries, uninterrupted 90-minute instruction and a uniform reading program;

• The provision of high-quality preschool for all eligible three- and four year-old children in the school district;

• Mathematics performance as measured by all state assessments with documentation of alignment of instructional materials and texts to the Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCCS), the universality of algebra mastery by the end of the ninth grade and preparation of all students in grades five through eight for college-preparatory math in high school;

• The alignment of science curricula with the CCCS, including course sequence, instructional materials and professional development with a schedule of implementation for the two academic years beginning 2006-2007; and

• The status of efforts to assure that all students in grades six through 12 are or will be in a small school or in a small learning community within a larger school.

“The [new] rules require that a school district’s business operations and fiscal management are effective and efficient,” the DOE states on the Web site.

Abbott Districts are the product of 13 Abbott v Burke decisions of the New Jersey Supreme Court that identified school districts as poorer urban districts and were created to ensure that the best knowledge and techniques would be used to provide children in these districts with a thorough and efficient education, then Commissioner William L. Librera stated in his 2003 report on Abbott designation.

Long Branch was identified as one of the original 28 Abbott districts in 1990, a determination made by the Legislature, the State Board of Education and the Commissioner of Education.

It remains one of the state’s 31 Abbott districts today.

Librera submitted his 2004 report on the economic requirements for Abbott designation to the Legislature on June 14 asking for recommendations on what districts should remain Abbott districts, which districts should be discharged from the Abbott designation and what districts if any should be added to the list.

“The Legislature can move on [Librera’s] recommendations or not,” Rice said. “If they move then we can make regulations.”

If Librera’s recommendations are accepted by the Legislature, then the Office of Legislative Services (OLS), a nonpartisan agency, has identified 13 districts that could lose their Abbott designation, which include Long Branch.