2 Public Hearings of the Achievement Gap Task Force:

The Department of Education announces 2 December public hearings of the

College and Career Readiness Task Force - one in the north and one in the south

Trenton, NJ -The Department of Education today announced that the

College and Career Readiness Task Force will hold two public hearings in

December. 

• One will be conducted on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. in the Student  Community Center-Davidson Room at the County College of Morris. 
• The second will be held Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. in the New Campus Center at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

The purpose of the hearings is to gather input from the public on
educating students to the level of college and career readiness. The
public input will inform the recommendations in the task force's final
report which is due to the NJ Department of Education by December 31,
2011.

The College and Career Readiness Task Force is a group of K-12 and
higher education practitioners and business community representatives
that have two main responsibilities: clearly articulating the knowledge
and skills that students should master to be "college- and career-ready,"
and ensuring that New Jersey has the appropriategraduation requirements
and high school assessments in place to evaluate the mastery of these readiness standards.

Input from the public should address these critical questions that the
task force is charged with answering for the NJDOE in its final report:

1. What does college and career readiness mean?
2. What is the appropriate way to assess this level of student
    achievement?
3. What graduation requirements should be required, including
    comprehensive examinations and end-of-course assessments?
4. What process, benchmarks and timelines should be established to
    guide transition from the current system to the new system?

The Career and College Readiness Task Force will accomplish this 
charge by doing the following:

* Evaluating the degree to which the New Jersey High School
   Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) and Alternative High School
   Assessment (ASHA) are appropriately gauging college and career readiness;

* Reviewing how other states are defining and evaluating college
   and career readiness;

* Recommending specific educational standards, course offerings,
   learning outcomes, graduation requirements, college entrance and
   placement requirements, and workforce readiness requirements;

* Identifying the means of measuring success for schools and
  districts including assessment tools to measure school completion and
  college entrance readiness that can be relied on by P-12, higher
  education and employers as a valid indicator of student readiness. The
  review will include recommendations concerning a new comprehensive
  exam and end-of-course assessments;

* Identifying data needs related to NJ demographics, school
   learning outcomes, completion and assessment, college entrance,
   retention and graduation, and demonstrated national best practice
   aligning school and college completion; and

* Establishing a state-level transition plan and timelines for moving from the existing system to the new system  
   including:

• establishing a structure and process to support implementation of the school/college completion agenda;
• engagement of appropriate constituencies, including teachers,college faculty, business leaders and others;
•  identifying the need for professional development; and field-testing the new assessments.

http://www.state.nj.us/education/news/2011/1208gap.htm