More testing

New Jersey schools are among the best and worst in the nation. Affluent districts tend to produce high-performing students, while poor schools produce failure and dejection — a result of massively unequal resource distribution.

How does the state plan to deal with it? More tests.

There is no doubt that tougher standards and higher expectations would help across the board but, as urban schools advocates say, more tests are not likely to produce the results desired.

“Some of our schools are just getting by now,” said LuElla McFadden, president of a parents group in Jersey City. “Now they’re going to add more tests they know the kids can’t pass. It’s going to increase the dropout rate and violence in schools from sheer frustration.”

Is this defeatist? Not necessarily. The reality is that you can’t expect performance to improve just by announcing a test or by saying that standards have been elevated. You have to improve teaching and provide better school environments — things that cost money. If the state wants to improve test scores, it has to find a way to recruit the best teachers to the worst schools and to replace decrepit buildings and improve safety. That is more likely to ge the job done that new tests.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet