New Jersey Projects

The immediate goal of MACC’s work with the State Committee is to establish and maintain collaboration and shared decision-making across the programs and offices around NJQSAC and other current policies. The long-term goal is to build state capacity in the area of resource sharing and comprehensive planning across divisions for the purpose of meeting the technical assistance needs of schools and districts identified for improvement.

MACC is assisting the NJ DOE in the completion of a comprehensive needs assessment (CNA) process that is designed to assist them in improving the quantity and quality of data collection on their migrant students, and help them to identify the special educational needs of migrant children and determine the specific services that will help migrant children achieve the State’s measurable outcomes and performance targets. CNA is a statutory requirement of the NCLB Act (Title I, Part C, Sections 1304(b) and 1306(a).

USED has made it a requirement to annually conduct re-interviews of migrant families to ensure program eligibility. In Year 3 MACC project staff will assist the NJDOE by facilitating meetings with key state staff to share models of re-interview management and protocols; co-train staff who will conduct the re-interviews in the field; and assist/facilitate the state staff to create a system to make final eligibility determinations and institute a reporting system.

Supporting School Restructuring--Technical Assistance System Activity

According to the Accountability system outlined in NCLB, schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress for five and six consecutive years are identified for Restructuring I and II. NJDOE currently has 39 schools that are in Year Two of Restructuring. MACC has split the Restructuring Schools initiative into two phases. The first phase of the Restructuring Schools Project involved assisting NJDOE in assessing the needs of districts in (1) assessing schools’ needs using multiple forms of data, (2) identifying ”Power Indicators”, and (3) identifying current NJDOE practice in the “Power Indicator” areas. This phase involved the use of data from the Collaborative Assessment for Planning and Achievement (CAPA), which a comprehensive needs assessment for schools in Corrective Action and Restructuring. The second phase involves assisting NJDOE in providing technical assistance to districts in providing supports to schools and districts in implementing the Best Practices. This will be accomplished by using the CAPA and state achievement data to identify and document the practices of those schools that made significant gains in student achievement.

This project involves collaboration between the Commissioner’s Office, Title I, and the County and Regional Offices. MACC will utilize resources from the work with restructuring schools in other states to guide the restructuring initiative in New Jersey. MACC will confer with the Center on Innovation and Improvement (CII) and the Regional Educational Laboratory for the Mid-Atlantic (REL-MA) to identify additional resources for supporting the work with Restructuring Schools in New Jersey.

The short-term goal is to develop and implement a system of technical assistance and support with restructuring schools based on a thorough analysis of the data. This goal will involve identifying the Best Practices that will provide the content for the technical assistance system. Once the best practices are identified, MACC will assist with the training and support of the staff that will manage and provide the technical assistance. The long-term goal of this project is to assist NJDOE as they internalize and differentiate their TA system based on the needs of individual districts and schools in need of improvement.

For more information regarding MACC’s work in New Jersey please contact MACC’s New Jersey State Coordinator Ryan Tyler at rtyler@ceee.gwu.edu