BY DAN NEWMAN
Staff Writer
Middletown MIDDLETOWN — The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President Bush in January 2002, was intended to provide education for the disadvantaged, make for safer, drug-free schools, and help the overall education process.
While the act was signed to benefit children, parents had an opportunity last week to find out more about it during a forum titled “What No Child Left Behind Means to Your School,” sponsored by the Brookdale Community College Basic Skills Committee.
Sarah Kohl, government relations lobbyist for the New Jersey School Boards Association, was at the forum and discussed some of the components that are involved, one of which is that districts must maintain Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Subgroups involved in determining AYP include economically disadvantaged students, students in major racial and ethnic groups, and students with disabilities.
“In order to make AYP, districts must have 95-percent participation of the student body, and the districts must also meet the objectives that are defined by the state,” Kohl said.
Kohl also went on to say that district-wide failure has occurred in the past. Failure for five consecutive years may occur in the state taking over a district.
“Places such as Paterson, Newark and Jersey City were taken over in the past, due to poor performances,” Kohl said.
Sean Hadley, a representative from the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, spoke about how some items within school budgets, while important, are going to be tough to come by in the near future.
“It seems that the increases are decreasing and it may be that way until at least the next election,” Hadley said.
Hadley also said that even with the state receiving just over $2 billion per year in funding, sometimes it is still not enough.
“In New Jersey just over the last five years, 30 percent of music and art programs in the schools have been cut,” Hadley said. “It’s obvious that times are tough and these are the programs that suffer the most.”
Hadley went on to say that the diversity of curriculums is often overlooked, and that this is an item that needs to be given more attention down the road.