B4K Praises SBOE’s Choice to Have a

Data-Centered Conversation on Assessments

Shelley Skinner, Executive Director of the Better Education for Kids, issued the following statement today regarding the New Jersey State Board of Education’s decision to not to take action on the proposed regulation changes to the statewide assessment system.

“Ensuring that we are challenging our students academically in order to be ready for the workplace and/or higher education is vital to our State’s future.  The elimination of four of the six assessments in high schools is potentially very harmful to our State’s economic competitiveness and especially to the accountability of our most vulnerable students and families.  Today, the State Board exercised important judgment to slow down this process and allow for a data-driven discussion about why these changes should be made and how/if they will help student outcomes. We cannot allow anecdotal evidence to be the basis of our State’s education policymaking nor can we accept that it is too difficult to improve learning outcomes after 8th grade.

Without an objective tool to measure a child’s needs, like an assessment, we have no credible way to seek remediation for struggling kids, regardless of whether that student is in middle school or high school we have an obligation to them to assess and work to improve any educational deficiencies.  We need to hold our schools and districts accountable and guarantee they are providing every educational tool at their disposal until the day a child graduates high school. We cannot signal that we are giving up on children by not encouraging rigor and success through every step of their educational journey.”

###