After bringing hidden inequities to light, a high-performing school district set out to reverse course. The district adopted two key practices to center issues of equity: the development of a district-specific metric, the Opportunity Index, and deep analysis of deceleration patterns in course taking among certain groups. These practices, alongside…

Thomas Hatch, Rachel Roegman, and David Allen draw on examples from three districts in New Jersey -- one of the most segregated states in the United States for Black and Latinx students -- to present a multidimensional approach to creating equitable learning experiences. This approach begins with a focus on instruction but also takes into account…

Two decades ago, the New Jersey Supreme Court in "Abbott v. Burke" mandated that the state establish high quality preschool education in the 31 highest-poverty school districts. New Jersey created a pre-K program with high standards and a continuous improvement system that transformed a patchwork of private and public programs into a…

This case study focuses on one primarily Latino public primary school in New Jersey that waived the state's bilingual education requirement and implemented a curricular alternative, comprised of bilingual and monolingual English classrooms. A corpus was generated from one-to-one interviews (N = 8) with administrators and teachers, as well as…

In 2009, Excelencia in Education launched the Ensuring America's Future initiative to inform, organize, and engage leaders in a tactical plan to increase Latino college completion. An executive summary of Latino College Completion in 50 states synthesizes information on 50 state factsheets and builds on the national benchmarking guide. Each…

This document contains the proceedings of a conference held in December 1978 to discuss problems confronted by Hispanics in the higher education system of New Jersey. Presented are an opening statement by Chancellor T. Edward Hollander on the status of Hispanics in New Jersey higher education and the keynote address by Hilda Hidalgo focusing on…

This issue reviews national demographic trends in school segregation, summarizing research findings. Though the national debate on school segregation emphasizes blacks and whites, present-day school segregation includes segregation by socioeconomic level, ethnicity, and native language. The research study examined features of the ecology of…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Chance Favors the Prepared Mind": Report Finds that Students in the Highest-Achieving States Score As Well…

This report provides data on the academic achievement gap that separates low-income and minority students from other students, examining how well different groups of students perform in New Jersey and noting inequities in teacher quality, course offerings, and funding. Included are tables and data that provide: a frontier gap analysis (a…

This document presents key educational statistics for New Jersey's elementary school through college students using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The report presents state-level data on K-college education, including demographic distribution across each educational level, participation and success in Advanced…

The eight schools profiled in this document are serving different populations, but all of them are closing the achievement gap between low-income, minority, and special needs students and their peers. By trying out innovative new strategies, these schools are blazing a trail for others to follow. They are dispelling the myth that some students can…