Education Blogs & Reports
In Control of Teacher Candidates: State Deregulation and Professional Autonomy
By Rachel Garver, Drew Gitomer, and Emily Hodge It has almost been one year since educator preparation programs (EPPs) across New Jersey have been released from using edTPA as a state-mandated teacher performance assessment. [...]
Learn More About the NJ Promising Practices Project at the New Jersey Education Association 2024 Convention!
Stop by Booth #1102 and at the New Jersey Education Association 2024 Convention at the Atlantic City Convention Center from November 7-8, 2024 and learn more about the research the NJ Promising Practices Project is [...]
NJ Communities Spotlight: New Jersey and Special Education – Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Jordyn Roy Introduction New Jersey is home to one of the largest populations of students with disabilities (SWDs) in the United States. Almost one-fifth of our public school students aged 3 to 21 [...]
Dual Enrollment Student Outcomes in New Jersey – Recent Research Highlights
By Elizabeth Cooner and Angie Nga Le Dual enrollment programs allow high school students to take college courses, helping them explore college options and get a jump start on their postsecondary education. In New [...]
What Happens When Authority Devolves from the State to Educator Preparation Programs? Tensions Between Professionalization and Deregulation
By Emily Hodge, Rachel Garver, & Drew Gitomer. As teacher preparation became increasingly institutionalized as a field of university-based study in the early 1900s (Lagemann, 2000), educator preparation programs (EPPs) became subject to critiques [...]
Computing on the Inside: Building a Team to Meet the Challenge
By Ben Justice, Ra’Zulu Ukawabutu, and Tommie Willis Imagine never accessing the internet, using today’s technologically advanced phones, being denied access to the information highway or simply being able to search for basic information on [...]
Report Release: Reengaging COVID-Disconnected College Students in Newark
By Elisabeth Kim, Ph.D., Bernie Lombardi, Ph.D., and Robyn Ince, Ed.M. The New Jersey State Policy Lab, in collaboration with the Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC), is releasing a report that examines barriers and opportunities to reengaging COVID-disconnected college students [...]
Introducing the Promising Practices Project
By Kevin Majewski. The Promising Practices Project (PPP) is an important New Jersey Department of Education (NJ DOE) initiative aimed at identifying and documenting innovative teaching and learning practices [...]
New Jersey Joins the Move Away from Standardized Performance Assessments for Teacher Licensure
By Drew Gitomer, Emily Hodge, Rachel Garver and Colleen McDermott. In 2022, New Jersey eliminated the requirement that all teacher candidates pass a standardized performance assessment for certification. Instead, educator preparation programs [...]
Computing on the Inside: Addressing Technology Education within the Prison System
By Benjamin Justice. Despite being a progressive state with regard to carceral reform and support of education, New Jersey is far behind much of the country when it comes to integrating computer technology [...]
Review of Postsecondary Attainment in New Jersey
Angie Nga Le, Miranda Alperstein, and Suhaib Yehya. Higher education plays a pivotal role in both individual career advancement and the long-term economic prosperity of a state. In New Jersey, elevating postsecondary attainment [...]
Newark Youth Share Experiences and Challenges to Enrolling in Postsecondary Education
By Bernie Lombardi, Ph.D., Betsy Kim, Ph.D., and Robyn Ince, Ed.M. As part of our ongoing study funded by the New Jersey State Policy Lab on youth who were disconnected from college during COVID-19 in Newark, we conducted focus groups [...]
The Opportunities and Anxieties of Policy Change: How Educator Preparation Programs Reorganize to Adopt New Teacher Performance Assessments
By Rachel Garver, Drew Gitomer, and Emily Hodge. Policy change may bring benefits and burdens to organizations charged with implementation. When New Jersey removed the requirement to use edTPA as a teacher performance assessment [...]
Newark Community-Based Organizers’ Perspectives on Planning for the Future, College Enrollment Trends, and Supports
By Bernie Lombardi, Ph.D., Betsy Kim, Ph.D., Robyn Ince, Ed.M. As part of our ongoing study funded by the New Jersey State Policy Lab researching potential barriers to youth in Newark enrolling in college, [...]
Performance Assessments Across New Jersey: What Educator Preparation Programs Are Using Now
By Emily Hodge, Rachel Garver, and Drew Gitomer. In the wake of New Jersey’s 2022 legislative removal of the edTPA as a required performance-based assessment for teacher candidates, educator preparation programs (EPPs) have had newfound freedom [...]
Working to Address Youth Disconnection Through Policy in NJ
By Bernie Lombardi, Ph.D., Betsy Kim, Ph.D., Robyn Ince, Ed.M. On January 16, 2024, The Disconnection Prevention Bill (S3080) was signed into law by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Bill S3080 will establish the [...]
Climate Education Initiatives in New Jersey
By Josephine O’Grady. According to the 2020 New Jersey Scientific Report on Climate Change, New Jersey is warming more quickly than the rest of the Northeast region. The state is experiencing a myriad of climate-related challenges [...]
Teacher Candidate Performance Assessment Moves Forward in New Jersey
By Drew Gitomer, Emily Hodge, and Rachel Garver. In June 2022, New Jersey enacted a significant change in how educator preparation programs (EPPs) would assess the quality and readiness of their teacher candidates through performance assessment [...]
College Enrollment and Attainment in Newark: Tracking the Trends Post-COVID
By Robyn Ince, Bernie Lombardi, and Betsy Kim Relying on data from the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census and the National Student Clearinghouse, we will give an overview of the college enrollment and attainment trends in Newark, the state of New Jersey [...]
Early Findings Form the Science Course Pathways Study
By Vandeen A. Campbell, Ph.D. Work thus far on the NJ Science Course Pathways Study has focused on coding and classifying science course pathways and preliminary descriptive and advanced analyses. So far, findings confirm that [...]
How Can Institutions and Communities Work Together to Reengage “COVID-Disconnected” College Students?
By Robyn Ince, Ed.M., Elisabeth Kim, Ph.D., and Bernie Lombardi, Ph.D. The Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC) is working in partnership with the New Jersey State Policy Lab to explore how institutions and communities in the city of Newark might work together to reengage “COVID-disconnected” college students [...]
Walking Together Over Uncertain Terrain: The Role of Professional Associations During Times of Policy Change
Educator preparation programs (EPPs) in New Jersey are engaged in a nonstop cycle of recruiting, training, and graduating teachers for the state, which has experienced a severe teacher shortage. The design and practices of these programs [...]
The Economic Issues Impacting College Enrollment
By James Barrett. As of May 2023, the National Student Clearinghouse published their annual Current Term Enrollment Estimates, painting a bleak picture of the state of college enrollment across the nation. Public two-year enrollments dropped 10.1% [...]
After-School Programs and Students’ Academic Behavior in New Jersey: Current Situation and Future Development
By Xiao Liang After-school programs in the United States can be traced back to the late 19th century, developed from historical changes in children’s participation in the labor force market, the introduction of formal schooling [...]
New Jersey State Policy Lab Summer Internship Summit
The New Jersey State Policy Lab held the 2023 Summer Internship presentations at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy on August 17, 2023. The eight summer interns each presented [...]
The Times They are a Changin’ – Shifts in Teacher Education Assessment Policy
By Emily Hodge, Rachel Garver, and Drew Gitomer. What happens on the ground when years of strong state control and authority over teacher licensure is suddenly minimized? In what ways do local educational institutions change and maintain practices [...]
Many Paths, One Future: New Jersey’s Commitment to Higher Education Attainment
By Nichole M. Garcia, Ph.D. To fuel the U.S. economy, a high school diploma is no longer enough in terms of educational attainment. The Lumina Foundation projects that more than 60 percent of adults in [...]
New Jersey Snapshot: Rising Population Yet Declining School Enrollments
By James Barnett Declining enrollment is an issue that has plagued schools across America for the greater part of the last decade. While various factors are likely to be at fault, declining birth rates, especially [...]
Report Release: Youth Mental Health in New Jersey: Current Status and Opportunities for Improved Services
By Karen Lowrie and Brooke Schwartzman. Teens of today have faced major shifts in societal, environmental, community, familial, and individual spheres, heightened by racial and school-based violence and the COVID-19 pandemic, creating challenges [...]
Do New Jersey High Schools Have STEM Focus? Piloting New Measures
By Vandeen Campbell High schools’ focus on STEM is a key feature of the ongoing study of the relationship between science course sequences, college enrollment, and pursuing STEM fields for students in New Jersey. Alongside the question of what types of science course sequences are predictive [...]
Report Release: The Impact of Eliminating Adjustment Aid for School Districts in New Jersey
By Michael S. Hayes. In 2018, New Jersey implemented the S-2 bill, which aimed to reduce adjustment aid to school districts in the state. The objective of this policy was to end a practice of “overfunding” school districts, which had it not been for the adjustment aid [...]
Insights on Ageism, Health Care, and the Digital Divide
By Epiphany Munz, Donita Devance, and Diane Hill, Ph.D. The World Health Organization (WHO) published the Global report on ageism to call attention to the discrimination that older adults face, along with recommendations for a [...]
Digital Inequity: New Jersey State Digital Literacy Initiative
By Diego Gudino-Martinez & Leonor Camarena, Ph.D. (Indiana University). It is safe to say that COVID-19 has both illustrated and influenced the dependence the United States educational system has on technology. Existing education inequalities were worsened by a rapid shift towards virtual learning that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic's beginnings [...]
Understanding the Teacher-Student ‘Diversity Gap’ and Discipline Rates in New Jersey
By James Barnett. Through collaborations with the Joseph C. Cornwall Center at Rutgers-Newark, the New Jersey State Policy Lab has provided ongoing, rigorous research on the subject of discipline disparities in New Jersey K-12 schools through multiple reports and articles [...]
Why Does the High School Science Course Sequence Matter?
By Vandeen A. Campbell, Ph.D. Why does the sequencing of high school science courses matter? This essential question puts an emphasis not only on the combination of science courses taken in high school but also [...]
How Did the 2018 Revision of New Jersey’s School Aid Formula Impact the Distribution of State Funding Across New Jersey School Districts?
By Michael S. Hayes, Ph.D. The School Reform Funding Act of 2008 (SRFA) was designed to create a new school funding formula to end a long cycle of failed legislative attempts to reduce school spending [...]
Perkins Act: A Key Component to Bringing Everyone into the Digital Age
By Abigail Alcala. The Perkins Act, or its most recent iteration, which went into effect in 2019, called Strengthening Career and Technical Education in the 21st Century, is facing the end of its run in the coming year of 2024 [...]
The Future of Educator Performance Assessments in New Jersey
By Drew Gitomer, Emily Hodge, and Rachel Garver On December 16, 2022, Governor Murphy signed legislation that removes the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) as a statewide requirement for teacher certification in New Jersey. The edTPA, adopted by New Jersey in 2016, is an assessment [...]
Youth Mental Health in New Jersey: Current Status and Opportunities for Support Service Improvement
By Karen Lowrie and Brooke Schwartzman. Childhood, particularly adolescence, has always been marked by challenges, as youth learn to navigate the world. But times are changing; youth of today have faced major shifts in societal, environmental, community, familial, and individual spheres [...]
Literature Review & Policy Menu: How Can the Government Improve New Jersey Families’ Access to Childcare?
By Jocelyn Fischer and Debra Lancaster. Childcare is unaffordable for many families. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deems affordable childcare costs as those that are no more than 7 percent of families’ incomes [...]
Property Tax Rates and Quality of K-12 Education in New Jersey Communities
by James Barnett New Jersey is consistent in featuring at the top of the ranks for two different variables: effective real estate property tax rates and quality of K-12 education services.[1][2] These, unsurprisingly to most [...]
Report Release: Disparities in High-Leverage Mathematics Course-Taking in New Jersey, 2016-2020
By Vandeen A. Campbell, Ph.D. The New Jersey State Policy Lab, in collaboration with the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, is releasing a report that examines patterns in high school math course-taking across New Jersey [...]
Science Course Pathways in NJ’s High Schools and Postsecondary Outcomes in STEM
By Vandeen A. Campbell, Ph.D. With funding from the New Jersey State Policy Lab, the American Education Research Association (AERA), and National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Grant Program, the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan [...]
Case Study Release: Parents and Students’ Perceptions of the CCOG and GSG
By Elisabeth Kim, Ph.D., Bernard Lombardi, Ph.D., and Robyn Ince, Ed.M. The Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC) and the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University-Newark are working in partnership with the New Jersey State Policy Lab [...]
Assessing Pre- and Post-Pandemic School Staffing Changes in New Jersey
By Maia de la Calle Pandemic-related school closures posed several challenges to students and their families, including learning losses, adverse socioemotional and mental health outcomes, and food insecurity. The pandemic and associated school closures also [...]
Report Release: Discipline Inequity and Segregation in New Jersey’s High Schools
By Elisabeth Kim, Ph.D. The most segregated high schools in New Jersey often have the highest suspension rates. For example, this is the case for schools that serve large percentages of students of color (90%+) [...]
College and University Administrators’ Perceptions of the CCOG and GSG
by Elisabeth Kim, PhD, Bernard Lombardi, PhD, and Robyn Ince, Ed.M. The Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC) and the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University-Newark are working in partnership with [...]
Report Release: Equal Access to STEM Pathways? A Closer Look at Science Course-taking Trends in New Jersey’s High Schools
By Vandeen Campbell. New Jersey students in high schools segregated by both race and poverty tend not to take advanced science courses. Only about one-quarter (25%) of high school freshmen in schools segregated by both race [...]
Understanding Awareness and Impact of the Community College Opportunity Grant and the Garden State Guarantee in Newark, NJ
By Elisabeth Kim, Ph.D., Bernie Lombardi, Ph.D., and Robyn Brady Ince, Ed.M. The Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC) and the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University-Newark are working in partnership [...]
Examining Discipline Disparities in New Jersey’s High Schools
By Elisabeth Kim, Ph.D. and Jamelia Harris, Ph.D. Background and National Trends There is substantial evidence that documents the profound and adversarial consequences of the overreliance on exclusionary discipline practices such as suspensions and expulsions [...]
The New Jersey High School Experience: Differences in Freshman Year Science Course-taking
Vandeen Campbell, Ph.D. It is well established that careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields tend to offer higher wages (Carnevale, Cheah, & Hanson, 2015). Further, individuals who begin engaging in standard and [...]
The New Jersey High School Experience: Opportunities for High-leverage Mathematics Course Taking
Elisabeth Kim, Ph.D. and Vandeen Campbell, Ph.D. Mathematics has long been considered essential to success in secondary and post-secondary education and in a labor market increasingly reliant on 21st century skills (Aughinbaugh, 2012; Kim et al., [...]
Digital Equity for K-12 Students
By Stephanie Holcomb, Jessica Cruz-Nagoski, Andrea Hetling, Gregory Porumbescu, Vishal Trehan The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the important role efforts to promote digital access, literacy, and skills play in promoting a more equitable society. This [...]
The New Jersey High School Experience
Jamelia Harris, Ph.D. and Vandeen Campbell, Ph.D. Background and National Trends The connection between expanding access to high-quality and rigorous coursework and improving postsecondary outcomes is well established within the literature. According to the U.S. [...]
The New Jersey High School Experience: Promoting Freshmen On-track through Postsecondary Success for Cohorts of Secondary School Students
Vandeen Campbell Ninth grade is a critical year for getting adolescents on a path to secondary and postsecondary success. For underperforming secondary schools and districts looking to turnaround the trajectory of their freshman cohorts, offering [...]