Wednesday, October 26, 2005 – Newark, NJ

In the Court-ordered plan to manage the Abbott program, the NJ Department of Education admits its Abbott Division has serious problems, but provides no solutions for correcting them. As a result, Education Law Center is urging Acting Commissioner Lucille Davy to devise a more concrete, coherent and strategic approach for moving the Abbott reforms forward over the next two years.

ELC made the request yesterday in a letter to the Acting Commissioner, forwarding an 11-page response, with recommendations, to the Department's proposed management plan. The proposed plan, written by Abbott Division chief Gordon MacInnes, was posted on the Department's website for comment on September 22nd. See http://www.nj.gov/njded/abbotts/plan.pdf.

This summer, Judge Neil Shuster in Trenton ordered the Department to prepare the plan for its Abbott Division in a lawsuit brought by ELC. Judge Shuster directed the Department to carry out its own regulation requiring the plan be developed and adopted by the Commissioner, after soliciting input from stakeholders.

"The problems with the Abbott Division are quite stunning," said ELC attorney Koren Bell. "Unfortunately, the Department provides no game plan for tackling them," Ms. Bell added.

Among the problems cited in the Division's plan are:

• Most Division staff lack "experience working on teaching and learning issues in urban schools." As a result, the challenge to improve instructional and financial practices in Abbott districts "requires considerable retraining and a change in mindset among the [Division] staff."
• "The Division lacks sufficient numbers and quality of experienced educators who know how to adapt their expertise to the very particular circumstances of any Abbott district."
• The Division "can ask many questions, but it can provide few answers" on the changes needed to improve academic performance in Abbott schools. Further, the Division has no backup strategy to improve instruction in those districts where "collaborative efforts" fail.
• Abbott districts have no more space to increase Pre-K enrollments because of the Department's failure to provide facilities, and 3,000 Head Start children remain shut out of Abbott Pre-K in Camden, Newark and Paterson alone because of the failure of the Office of Early Childhood Education to reach agreement with local Head Start programs.
• The Department has made no progress in 3 years in setting up NJ Smart, the student database, leaving Abbott districts unable to diagnose educational problems and needs.
• The Department still has no plans to evaluate the Abbott program, seven (7) years after the Court ordered the evaluation.
• The Governor and Legislature are acting in conflict with the Abbott Court orders, creating a untenable process of "continuous budgeting" in the Abbott districts and handcuffing the work of the Abbott Division.
• The Department is incapable of providing State test results in time to be of use to Abbott teachers.

Besides offering no plan to address these pressing problems, the Department presents only bare bones information on the Abbott Division's staff, and no real strategy for staff development and recruitment. The information on how the Division will spend the $17 million in Abbott management funds is also sketchy. The plan doesn't even have a basic line-item budget for these funds.

"The failure to present a detailed staff development plan, and a budget using basic accounting standards, is troubling," Ms. Bell said. "The Division has $17 million in Abbott program funds, and the Court requires that these funds be spent effectively and efficiently."

"We are asking Acting Commissioner Davy to work with us and other stakeholders to revamp the plan for the Abbott Division. A strategic approach to managing Abbott is essential to ensure that the State's substantial investment in its poorest school children is paying off," Ms. Bell added.