Education and Testing Standards for New Jersey - Essay Example

Education and Testing Standards for New Jersey 601.4 - Schools and Society Helaine, October 2009 Every in America requires teachers to know and use student achievement standards. Because of the No Child Left Behind Act, it is critical that you understand the standards in your state. You are responsible for knowing what the children in your state are expected to know. You must learn what your state requires you to teach. 

Some states have a single core curriculum statement. Others have a series of achievement standards for each grade level. Some states have teacher competencies or teacher standards. Some states use standards developed by national associations as content standards. For example states may have adopted NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) standards. The NCTM is a national organization that has developed Math standards. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction The state of New Jerseys Department of Education is well aware of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, and provides a number of documents on its website with the changes brought about by the act reflected in them. One of the principles contained in the act is "an emphasis on teaching methods that have been proven to work" (State of New Jersey, Department of Education, 2006). In fact, the department has an extensive website that give information for a number of different users including NJ Educators. For educators, there are set academic standards, program requirements, assessment standards, professional standards, and so on. As regards the curriculum, the state has formed its own Core Curriculum Content Standards, but in addition provides an administrative code and there are applicable federal laws and regulations for certain programs as well. Additionally, the state engages in various literacy initiatives, provides classroom resources related to the standards, and has a twelfth grade option. Four important standards relating to education and testing in NJ are listed below. The first portion of the Administrative Code listed relates to student assessment, and the second concerns safety and health. Apart from the first document, the rest were published in 2006. The 2009 Core Curriculum Content Standards are provided as final edited versions in Word document files divided into a number of subject areas. Only 5 standards pertaining to 5 different subject areas are made available for download. A searchable website containing these standards has been planned for launch next month. Academic Standards • New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards Professional Standards • Professional Standards and Learning Administrative Code • Standards and Assessment for Student Achievement Code (chapter 8) • Programs to Support Student Development Code (chapter 16) The first three documents in the list are described below. New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards (2009) These contain core curriculum statements. The 5 standards available through the website are for Visual and Performing Arts (Standard 1), Comprehensive Health and Physical Education (Standard 2), Science (Standard 3), World Languages (Standard 7), and Technology (Standard 8). The standards are said to reflect "current research, exemplary practices, national and state standards and standards from other countries" (State of New Jersey, Department of Education, 2009). A special feature of these standards is the inclusion of standards and cumulative progress indicators (CPIs) aligned with "the knowledge and skills needed for post-secondary education and the workplace" (ibid). Each standard document is divided into an introductory part with clear mission and vision statements, a list of resources, glossary and of course specific details of the content areas for each strand and grade, etc. The latter are given in the form of Content Statements together with details of the corresponding CPIs. The primary organising category is content rather then grade, which would make it difficult if only information for a particular grade is requred. To give an idea of the length, of the 5 documents currently available online, Standard 8 is the shortest document consisting of 22 pages and Standard 7 is the longest document consisting of 62 pages. Currently the standards are provided as downloadable documents, but the planned website to include these standards will certainly improve navigation. Professional Standards and Learning These comprise of a number of downloadable documents divided into 5 initiatives. The initiatives are as follows: 1. Professional Standards for Teachers and School Leaders Initiative 2. No Child Left Behind Highly Qualified Teachers Initiative 3. Professional Development for Teachers Initiative 4. Professional Development for School Leaders Initiative 5. Teacher Mentoring and Induction Support Initiative These are designed to "provide a clear vision of the knowledge, performance and dispositions that teachers and school leaders need to support student learning and achievement of the revised Core Curriculum Content Standards" (State of New Jersey, Department of Education, 2006b). The Professional Standards for Teachers and School Leaders for example is a 36 page document that is attractively laid out in an easy to follow style with clear points in the form of specific objectives for teachers to know and understand (knowledge), teachers to value and be committed to (dispositions) and teachers to apply (performances). These are given for a total of 6 areas of professionalism. Standards and Assessment for Student Achievement Code This is a 28 page document (amended this year) organised into 5 subchapters. These deal with general provisions, the core curriculum content standards and its implementation, and implementation of the statewide assessment system and graduation requirements. This resembles more of a legal document with a lot of technical terms, precise definitions and stipulations, so is not easy to follow. Document Comparisons The three documents analysed are all designed to support the teaching process in different areas. To put it simplistically, they concern what to teach, way of teaching, and how to assess respectively. The first two are well presented even though they contain very specific information, but the third stands out in contrast for not being as easy to follow. Moreover, the second is aligned with the first, which makes the two easy to correspond. This helps for instance, of we need to know how best to apply our teaching abilities for a particular content area. A teacher could use the information from these documents to enhance student learning: By referring to the Core Curriculum Content Standards to know what their class is expected to know and be able to do as specified by their state. This will ensure that the curriculum requirements are met, and that the students are on par with other students in other schools in the state. By knowing what is expected to be known, understood, perceived and engaged in for a particular content and generally, the teaching approach will be made more effective. It also ensures that these expectations are met. By handling the assessment process as efficiently as the teaching, and applying standardised assessment procedures for ease of comparison. Conclusions Standards documents as the name suggests, are prepared so as to specify certain standards that are required or expected. These are invaluable in education because they also provide a means to ensure that the certain expected standards are met. Curriculum standards ensure for example, that what is taught has been deemed appropriate, promotes equity, and prevents lagging behind. Professional teacher standards enable teachers to know what is expected of them personally, which can therefore also assist in professional development. Assessment standards provide a means to apply the same set of procedures that not only make the task easier but also facilitates comparisons. The writer is already well acquainted with these and other documents, and as a teacher will use them to benefit all participants in the learning process including my own personal professional development. References State of New Jersey, Department of Education. (2006a). New Jersey, No Child Left Behind. Retrieved October 14, 2009 from http://www.state.nj.us/education/grants/nclb. State of New Jersey, Department of Education. (2006b). Professional Standards and Learning. Retrieved October 24, 2009 from http://www.state.nj.us/education/profdev. State of New Jersey, Department of Education. (2006c). Standards and Assessment for Student Achievement Code. Retrieved October 14, 2009 from http://www.state.nj.us/education/current/code/title6a/chap8.pdf. State of New Jersey, Department of Education. (2006c). Programs to Support Student Development Code. Retrieved October 14, 2009 from http://www.state.nj.us/education/code/current/title6a/chap16.pdf. State of New Jersey, Department of Education. (2009). New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. Retrieved October 14, 2009 from http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/2009. Read More