New Jersey to adopt tougher standards for high school students
Posted Sunday, June 14, 2009 from The Star-Ledger

New Jersey to adopt tougher standards for high school students

by Jeanette Rundquist

Sunday June 14, 2009, 7:15 AM

Nearly 100,000 students will graduate from New Jersey's public highschools this month, marching across football fields, gymnasiums orarenas in the warm June twilight, collecting diplomas in one of themost important milestones of their young lives.

They will be among the smartest graduates in the country: The stateranks high in test scores, graduation rates and other importantmeasures of education. But the world they will enter after stowingtheir caps and gowns is becoming more competitive and high-tech, andthere is a sense both in New Jersey and nationwide that "good" isn'tgood enough.

On Wednesday the state Board of Education is expected to adopt newgraduation requirements that, phased in over the next seven years, willmake high school a tougher academic arena for many students.

The New Jersey seniors of 2016 will have been drilled in morerigorous math and science programs, asked to complete a "personalizedlearning plan" to chart their learning goals; and, perhaps mostcontroversially, given up to seven new state-mandated exams indifferent subjects over the course of their high school career.

Four years in the making, New Jersey's "Secondary EducationRedesign" grew out of a national movement that argues the United Statesneeds to do more to educate its children for the future.

Led by the national, non-profit group Achieve, more than 20 statesalready have raised graduation requirements. Achieve's American DiplomaProject encourages states to close the "expectations gap" between whathigh schools require and what kids need to succeed in college or theworkplace.

"The changing economy demands a different level of preparation forour graduates," said New Jersey education commissioner Lucille Davy."The days of being able to leave high school and get a job and say 'I'mdone learning' have ended. This is not a New Jersey issue, it's anational issue."

New Jersey's plan was developed by the state Department of Educationwith input from educators and business leaders and support from Gov.Jon Corzine.

The new standards aim to equip high school grads with "21st-centuryskills" including critical thinking, problem solving, creativity,communication and collaboration. But questions remain.

In drawing up the plans, the state has had to come up with ways inhow to transform classrooms so those skills are passed on, how to testwhether students are really learning them, and what to do aboutstudents in the poorest districts, struggling to meet existing academicstandards.

While students are likely to be given more tests, the state is stilldiscussing what and how many tests will be required for graduation.

DIFFERING IMPACT

Although state officials speak passionately about preparing allstudents with 21st-century skills, there is acknowledgment the changeswill have less impact in the state's wealthy suburbs, where manyschools are already pushing ahead of what the state will require.

In the poorest districts, home to one-quarter of the state'sschoolchildren, the impact will certainly be greater. Some fear the newstandards will lower graduation rates.

"What in the plan is going to help schools and students who are notmeeting current standards meet tougher ones?" asked Stan Karp, directorof the Secondary Reform Project for the Education Law Center in Newark."There's been a lot of testing, a lot of sanctioning, a lot of test andpunish. It doesn't really work to produce better outcomes for allkids."

Davy and other supporters of the changes say higher standards willforce schools in poor districts to work harder and inspire children toreach their potential.

"For many districts, these are not big changes. And, frankly, forlots of children throughout the state, these are not changes," Davysaid. "The real change is saying we have these expectations for everychild. In order to succeed in the 21st century, that minimum bar ishigher."

Concern, however, is not limited to the poorer districts.

In one of the state's wealthiest districts, the Chathams,superintendent Jim O'Neill said he supports the goal of teaching21st-century skills, but he called the series of proposed exams "a1970s model" and "the antithesis of what we should be doing."

O'Neill's complaint is a common one in progressive-educationcircles, where there is growing frustration with multiple-choice tests,which critics say are too simplistic to gauge whether students arelearning the skills of the future. The critics suggest assessingportfolios of student work, or at least tests that include open-endedquestions.

Davy said the way to test 21st-century skills is still beingdeveloped. "We recognize that a multiple-choice test alone as ahigh-stakes test is not a good way to measure," she said. "What I'msaying is there will be more than that."

A prototype already exists. The state in 2008 began giving a biologytest that includes multiple choice and open-ended questions. It doesnot yet count for graduation.

FIFTH-GRADERS IN THE VANGUARD

The new requirements increase the number of credits needed forgraduation to 120, from 110. Some things will get more demanding.Instead of requiring simply three years of math, for example, studentsmust take Algebra 1, geometry, and a third year of math "that builds onthe concepts and skills of algebra and geometry."

Three years of lab science would be required, plus a half-yearcourse in "financial literacy" and four years of language arts on gradelevel. The requirements would be phased in between now and 2013. Thesenior class of 2016 -- currently fifth-graders -- would be the firstto graduate under the full plan.

The proposal also includes creating personalized learning plans foreach child from sixth grade on, with support from adult mentors. Atwo-year pilot program in 16 districts is to begin this fall.

Some educators are supportive of both the increased course requirements and the exams.

John Hahola, assistant principal for instruction at North HunterdonRegional High School in Clinton Township, said the redesign brings a"change conceptually" to high school.

"Instead of focusing on the teaching component, the focus has becomeon the learning component," said Hahola, who served on a committee thathelped develop part of the proposal. "Everybody talks about 'teachingto the test' as a problem. My point is, the test and standards havebeen developed by discipline-specific experts and teachers. If you'retrying to assess a basic skill in a subject like algebra, what's wrongwith teaching to that test?"

In suburban Chatham High School, where nearly 99 percent of studentspass the current high school proficiency test and 90 percent or more ofgraduates head to four-year colleges, the new requirements may notbring dramatic change. Most students there have taken Algebra 1 beforethey got to high school; some wedge six years of math courses into fouryears.

At a recent senior awards ceremony, several graduating seniorsexpressed dismay about the crop of tests proposed -- too much pressure,they contended -- but said the new math and science requirements wouldnot be a stretch.

"We take that anyway," said Katie Rabe, 18, who is going to Johnson & Wales University in the fall.

"It doesn't really change things in our high school, because you'reexpected to go beyond," said John Paul Carlton, 18, who will attend theUniversity of Maryland.

The picture is different, however, in New Jersey's poor districts.At Newark's East Side High School, where about a quarter of studentshave lived in the United States less than three years and more thanhalf failed the high school proficiency test last year, a group ofgraduating seniors said last week they were worried about the newstandards.

"It is too much. It's too much pressure for kids," said Larissa DeLaCruz, 17, who will go to Kean University in the fall.

Another group of Newark high school seniors studied the proposal aspart of the Abbott Leadership Institute Youth Media Symposium. Theirtake: City schools lack resources like enough lab equipment or evenbooks and don't properly prepare students for ramped-up standards.

Some students said they take algebra and geometry now, but what theylearn doesn't match up with what they see on standardized tests. "A lotof times I see stuff on tests that's not taught in our school," saidGabriel Scott, 18, a Central High School senior who is headed toWilliam Paterson University in the fall.

Ahamad Williams, 18, also about to graduate from Central, said hepassed the current state exams but knows kids who did not. "If theycan't pass the HSPA test, why are they raising the standards? I thinkthat's crazy," he said.

ADJUSTMENTS AT VINELAND

A glimpse at how things may play out can be seen at Vineland HighSchool. The school of 2,900 students, in a poor South Jersey district,was dramatically restructured this past fall, part of an earlier reformthat wound up including many pieces of the current initiative.

All students now take college-prep English and algebra, history anda lab science. The school was broken into eight small "learningcommunities," and teacher teams work more closely with smaller numbersof students.

Ted Peters, the school's executive principal, said the change wasnot easy. 'Some kids would say, 'I never had courses like this before.How do you expect me to be successful?' Or a parent would call to say,'My son is struggling.'"

The changes (which were adopted within the existing budget) are toorecent to evaluate their effect on test scores and other data yet,Peters said. However, preliminary results of the first three markingperiods showed "failure rates higher than I would like" in science.

Still, Peters said he believes it was "the right thing for ourstudents." He said the proposed statewide redesign has the potential toimprove high school performance.

"To sit there and say every student is going to be able to docollege-level math or English is really shooting for the stars in somecases. But I think if you don't do that, you wind up being satisfiedwith less," he said. "I think we have to keep raising the bar."