Education Blogs & Reports

  • New Jersey Digital Literacy Initiative

Digital Inequity: New Jersey State Digital Literacy Initiative

March 23rd, 2023|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • Student-Teacher Diversity Gap

Understanding the Teacher-Student ‘Diversity Gap’ and Discipline Rates in New Jersey

March 20th, 2023|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • High School Science Courses

Why Does the High School Science Course Sequence Matter?

March 9th, 2023|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • New Jersey School Aid Formula

How Did the 2018 Revision of New Jersey’s School Aid Formula Impact the Distribution of State Funding Across New Jersey School Districts?

February 20th, 2023|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • The Perkins Acts - Technical School

Perkins Act: A Key Component to Bringing Everyone into the Digital Age

February 9th, 2023|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • New Jersey Educative Teacher Performance Assessment

The Future of Educator Performance Assessments in New Jersey

February 2nd, 2023|Comments Off on 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 Services in New Jersey

Youth Mental Health in New Jersey: Current Status and Opportunities for Support Service Improvement

January 26th, 2023|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • New Jersey Childcare Access

Literature Review & Policy Menu: How Can the Government Improve New Jersey Families’ Access to Childcare?

January 19th, 2023|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • NJ Education & Tax Rates

Property Tax Rates and Quality of K-12 Education in New Jersey Communities

January 17th, 2023|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • Math Course-taking in New Jersey High Schools

Report Release: Disparities in High-Leverage Mathematics Course-Taking in New Jersey, 2016-2020

January 5th, 2023|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • Science Courses in NJ

Science Course Pathways in NJ’s High Schools and Postsecondary Outcomes in STEM

December 15th, 2022|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • FAFSA, CCOG, and GSG case study

Case Study Release: Parents and Students’ Perceptions of the CCOG and GSG

November 22nd, 2022|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • School Staffing Pre- and Post-Pandemic

Assessing Pre- and Post-Pandemic School Staffing Changes in New Jersey

October 27th, 2022|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • Discipline Disparities in NJ High Schools

Discipline Inequity and Segregation in New Jersey’s High Schools

September 19th, 2022|Comments Off on Discipline Inequity and Segregation in New Jersey’s High Schools

By Elisabeth Kim, PhD. 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%+) [...]

  • Freshman Science Course Taking

Equal Access to STEM Pathways? A Closer Look at Science Course-taking Trends in New Jersey’s High Schools

July 28th, 2022|Comments Off on Equal Access to STEM Pathways? A Closer Look at Science Course-taking Trends in New Jersey’s High Schools

by Vandeen Campbell Freshman Year Science Course-taking in NJ, 2016-2019 Note: The total number of schools and students represented in each chart panel varied slightly each year. In 2019-20, 58 high schools (total 9th grade [...]

  • The words Financial Aid on a calculator

Understanding Awareness and Impact of the Community College Opportunity Grant and the Garden State Guarantee in Newark, NJ

May 12th, 2022|Comments Off on 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 [...]

  • High Schooler in Hall

Examining Discipline Disparities in New Jersey’s High Schools

April 21st, 2022|Comments Off on 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

February 7th, 2022|Comments Off on 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

December 23rd, 2021|Comments Off on 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., [...]

  • Teenage boy using laptop for homework

Digital Equity for K-12 Students

December 9th, 2021|Comments Off on 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

November 11th, 2021|Comments Off on 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. [...]

  • Rear view of large group of students raising their hands to answer the question on a class.

The New Jersey High School Experience: Promoting Freshmen On-track through Postsecondary Success for Cohorts of Secondary School Students

October 13th, 2021|Comments Off on 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 [...]