This review critiques the highly-praised and influential 2001 study, "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams," which concluded that "minimum competency," or high school "graduation exams," had no effect on student achievement. The review compares the test classifications of "Getting…

Objective: In the first study of its kind, the impact of excluding noncredit enrollments in calculations of spending in community colleges is explored. Noncredit enrollments are not reported to Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), but expenditures for these efforts are. This study corrects for this omission and provides new…

High school graduates continue to enter post-secondary education lacking in basic mathematical skills and thus not academically prepared to enroll in college-level mathematics courses (ACT, 2010). Although it can be argued that those mathematical concepts should have been mastered in grades K-12, educating those students in basic skills…

This paper provides information about New Jersey's High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA). The purpose of the exam is to: (1) Determine prospective high school graduates' mastery of selected content and overview foundation skills in math and literacy; (2) Encourage districts and schools to identify and serve students at risk of academic…

This study presents an investigation of information literacy as defined by the ETS iSkills™ assessment and by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Information Literacy Scale (ILS). As two related but distinct measures, both iSkills and the ILS were used with undergraduate students at NJIT during the spring 2006 semester. Undergraduate…

Contends that New Jersey's Minimum Basic Skills (MBS) tests in reading and mathematics waste time and money and should not be used by the state as the criteria to measure school and district performance. Low scores are the result of social conditions schools cannot correct by themselves. (Author/MLF)

The New Jersey Commissioner of Education replies that the Minimum Basic Skills (MBS) tests are not the sole criterion used to measure school and district performance and that some schools manage to teach well despite their students' low socioeconomic level. (Author/MLF)

Radical, but nevertheless serious, suggestions are made to change ineffective schools. (MLF)

As a state and national model for a basic skills curriculum for Kindergarten through grade 12 students, Coordination Learning Integration--Middlesex Basics (Project CLIMB) is described. The unified system was developed by teachers with administrative support to accomodate all students' reading and mathematics needs. Project CLIMB's development and…

Describes a group education plan for school districts and an individual education plan for the disadvantaged learner, as developed in New Jersey. Elements discussed include formulation of the group education plan and implementation of the individual education plan. (CT)

This article presents the two key recommendations and some additional excerpts from the proposed New Jersey master plan for higher education. The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) is studying the impact of this plan not only on higher education, but on the preparation and certification of public school teachers. (Author/SJL)

A study of nearly 30 urban elementary schools indicates that school composition (including race and socioeconomic background, school social structure, and certain social climate variables) explains more than 83 percent of between-school variance in reading achievement and 65 percent in mathematics achievement. (Author/GC)

This handbook seeks to provide advocates with the tools they need to encourage arts education in the schools, particularly in New Jersey. The document includes background material on arts education and advocacy, a set of 11 reasons why the arts are basic to education, and an explanation of what constitutes a quality arts education. Under the major…

The New Jersey department of education has implemented a minimum standards program to assure that all students have the individual opportunities they require for mastering the basic skills. The 1976-77 program is transitional and is used to build toward full implementation in the 1977-78 school year. In full operation, the state tests will be…

Research for Better Schools (RBS) is supporting improvement efforts in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. One form of this support is RBS's participation in collaborative projects to develop a system-wide, research-utilization approach to the improvement of basic skills instruction. Educational systems following the approach employ a staff…