New Jersey's Ranking in Grade 8 Reading

Trenton, NJ - Under the Christie Administration,
New Jersey continued to improve its overall national ranking on the 2011 National Association of Educational Progress (NAEP), the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Between 2009 and 2011, New Jersey maintained its ranking as the 2nd highest performing state in the country in grade 4 and 8 reading,and improved from 5th to 4th in grade 4 math, and from 5th to 3rd in grade 8 math.
Though nearly all subgroups have improved since 2003, the gap between low- and high-income students remains one of the largest in the country. In grade 8 reading, New Jersey ranks 50 out of 51 states plus DC in the size of its achievement gap.
For additional information:
http://www.state.nj.us/education/news/2011/1101naep.htm

Will Your High School Senior Be College and Career Ready?

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

of the College and Career Readiness Task Force, a group of K-12 and

higher education practitioners and business community representatives

that will 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 appropriate

graduation requirements and high school assessments in place to evaluate

the mastery of these readiness standards. The task force will submit its

recommendations to the Department of Education by December 31, 2011. 

"Our number one priority is to ensure that students across the state of
New Jersey are not only graduating from high school, but that when they
do, they are truly ready for college and a career. When you have over 90
percent of students who matriculate to Bergen and Essex County Community
Colleges requiring remediation before they can begin college-level work,
we clearly are not hitting that mark," said Acting Commissioner
Christopher D. Cerf. "In order to ensure that we are aligned with our
colleagues in higher education, we are bringing together practitioners
from both fields to clearly define the knowledge and skills that
students need to be ready for college and a career."
For more information about the task force:
http://www.state.nj.us/education/news/2011/1026task.htm

ARE YOU COMING HOME?

Welcome Home!

CALLING ALL ALUMNI !

YOU ARE INVITED TO COME HOME 

AND 

HELP US CELEBRATE 80 YEARS AT DWIGHT MORROW HIGH SCHOOL.

We invite you to share the stories of your lives while here at DMHS. We would also like to know about your lives since you left the halls of our 

Alma Mater. What have 

you been doing?

                    Please submit a digital image or 
                                     remembrance 

from your years at Dwight Morrow High School 

by sending it as an attachment to: 

anniversary@epsd.org

The Celebration in honor of the 

80th Anniversary 

will be held on Saturday, 11/19

"Through the Years" Museum & Timeline:  4-6pm

                           Light Buffet: 6-7:30pm

A Retrospective:  7:30-9:30pm

All activities will be in the main building. 

 The Retrospective will take place in the 

Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium.

The students of the present
look forward to seeing you as
we all celebrate 80 years of
Dwight Morrow High School.

If we all stand together as equals,

all of the children will be fine.

Maroon & White
Dynamite!

         Use the email address above to let us know 

you are coming home.

New Jersey's School Choice Program Expanded with 3,126 more available Seats

Christie Administration expands educational choice by offering 3,126
interdistrict choice seats in 71 school districts Deadline for parents
to submit a letter of intent to apply for 2012-13 school year is
November 1
Trenton, NJ - Furthering the governor's commitment to increasing and
improving educational opportunities for children and families, the
Christie Administration announced that more than 3,000 families will be
able to select the public school option that best fits their children's
needs in the 2012-2013 school year. This fall, 3,126 new seats are being
offered by 71 school districts approved to participate in the
Interdistrict Choice program, which allows students the option of
attending a public school outside their district of residence without
cost to their parents. There are currently 1,878 students in the
program in the 2011-2012 school year.

"All children, regardless of where they are born, should have the same
hope and opportunity that comes with attending a school that works best
for them. The Interdistrict Public School Choice program empowers
parents to make the best educational choices for their children, so they
have the best chance for a successful future," Acting Education
Commissioner Chris Cerf said. "This program also allows districts to
maximize enrollment and more efficiently use space in their schools."

Any student in the state is eligible to enroll in the Interdistrict
Choice program, regardless of whether or not their home district is
participating. Transportation of up to 20 miles, or funds to pay for
transportation, will be provided by the district of residence to a
student going to a choice school. If the school is outside of the
20-mile radius, transportation will be the responsibility of the
student, parents or guardians.

Parents who would like their child to take part in the program may
obtain an Intent to Participate form from the NJDOE website at
http://www.state.nj.us/education/choice/forms/NoticeOfIntentForm.pdf.
and return it to their home district by the November 1, 2011, deadline.
Applications may be obtained by contacting the choice school districts
directly and are due by December 1, 2011.

District participation in the program is optional. The decision to
apply to participate is made by the local board of education. The
district then sends an application to the Department of Education for
processing and review. This year, Elsinboro Township District in Salem
County and Franklin Township District in Hunterdon joined the program.

The choice school sets the number of openings per grade level. If there
are more students requesting admission to the school than there are
available openings, the school chooses the students by lottery. Any
school-age student who is a resident of New Jersey is eligible to take
advantage of this program.

The Interdistrict School Choice Program was signed into law by Governor
Christie on September 10, 2010. Details on the program can be found
here: http://www.state.nj.us/education/choice

A list of schools participating in the program can be found here:
http://www.state.nj.us/education/choice/districts/

Our Schools Are In Crisis: Is Help on The Way?

In this morning from the State Department....

Vincent K. Tibbs Early Childhood
Center

Trenton, NJ - The Department of Education today submitted the state's application for the Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge to the US Department of Education. This application would help to improve the quality of programs for over 75,000 low-income children from birth to age five in non-Abbott school districts across New Jersey. To advance this initiative,Governor Christie signed Executive Order 77 establishing the Early Learning Commission, which is charged with recommending improvements to the quality of, and access to, early learning and development programs in the state by coordinating early childhood education, health, and development programs across Departments and expanding New Jersey's Quality Rating Improvement System. This Commission will be chaired by the Commissioner of Education and include the Chairperson of the New Jersey Council for Young Children and representatives from the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Health and Senior Services, and the Department of Human Services.

"We are committed to ensuring that we prepare all students, regardless of zip code, for success in college and career. In order to do that, children must first be ready for kindergarten," said Acting Commissioner Christopher D. Cerf. "Through close collaboration with the Departments of Children and Families, Health and Senior Services, and Human Services, and stakeholders from across the state, we have developed a proposal that we believe will truly transform early learning and development programs in New Jersey and will strengthen early literacy skills. While the application now is out of our hands and we can't control whether we win this competition, we can control the steps we take to begin to move this from a plan to reality. We are already hard at work with partners from across the state to lay the groundwork for this new system."

The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge application builds on the success of the existing State Preschool Program to provide support and oversight to ensure that over 75,000 low-income children from birth to age five in early childhood centers throughout New Jersey all benefit from a high-quality program. The plan does not create new early existing programs serving low-income students across the state.


The application is based around four major priorities:

1.Improve the quality of existing early learning programs by expandingNJ's Quality Rating Improvement System. NJ's Quality Rating Improvement System sets standards for high-quality early childhood programs,assesses program quality, and provides training and technical assistance operators to improve. First piloted by the Build New Jersey Partners for Early Learning (Build NJ) consortium in 2007, NJ's Quality Rating Improvement System sets high standards for programs in six key areas: program and learning environment, family engagement, health and safety, professional development, personnel, and business practices. Through NJ's Quality Rating Improvement System, participating early childhood programs will receive a state quality rating, which will serve as "Consumer Reports" for parents in evaluating early childhood centers for their children.

2.Improve educator effectiveness in existing early childhood programs.
In order to ensure that all children are served by high-quality staff, the plan will offer participating educators training in comprehensive early childhood curricula and assessment systems through regional trainings. In addition, the state will focus on increasing the number of early childhood educators with core knowledge and greater credentials by providing tuition assistance and support to existing educators to obtain early childhood credentials.

Thumbs up for playtime.

3.Increase family access to information.
In addition to providing families with program quality information through NJ's Quality Rating Improvement System, which will help parents make informed decisions when selecting early childhood programs, the plan will create county-level councils that will engage parents and community members about the extent to which NJ's Quality Rating Improvement System works for families.

4.Improve use of data to strengthen programs and child performance.
plan will connect data systems across state departments through the creation of NJ-EASEL (New Jersey Enterprise Analysis for Early Learning), which will improve tracking of individual children and programs. In addition, it will enable a study to ensure that NJ's Quality Rating Improvement System effectively differentiates quality of program and the development of children. Lastly, the plan will capture children's competencies and skills upon entry to kindergarten to better understand how well current programs are preparing children for kindergarten.

The development of the Race to the Top -
Early Learning Challenge application was a collaborative effort across state agencies, led by the Department of Education. The DOE coordinated over the last several months with leaders from the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Health and Senior Services. In addition, the application has received letters of support from stakeholders across the state including school districts, higher education institutions, early learning and development organizations,community-based organizations, legislators, foundations, professional associations, and families.

The Executive Order can be found HERE
http://www.state.nj.us/education/news/2011/1019rttt.pdf


"How are the children?"