SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3381

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  FEBRUARY 7, 2019

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 3381, with committee amendments.

      Under current law, P.L.1979, c.241 (C.18A:7C-1 et seq.), the Commissioner of Education and the State Board of Education are required to establish a program of standards for graduation from high school, including the development of a Statewide assessment test in reading, writing, and computational skills.  The State graduation proficiency test is required to be administered to all 11th grade students, and to any 11th or 12th grade student who has not yet demonstrated proficiency on the test.

      As amended, this bill amends the provisions of current law concerning the graduation proficiency test to provide for the development or designation of a Statewide assessment or assessments in reading, writing, and computational skills.  The bill also eliminates the requirement that the assessment be administered specifically in the 11th grade. Under the bill, the State will be required to administer an assessment or assessments designed to test high school proficiency, and any student who initially does not demonstrate proficiency on the assessment or assessments must be given an opportunity to retest.  It is the committee’s understanding that high school proficiency includes college and career readiness.  Being college and career ready means that a high school graduate has the English and mathematics knowledge and skills necessary to enter and succeed in postsecondary opportunities, whether college or career, without need for remediation.

      The bill contains a grandfather provision for students in the graduating classes of 2019 and 2020, providing that these students will be deemed to have met graduation assessment requirements if they satisfy the State Board of Education regulations that were in place as of December 30, 2018 concerning graduation assessment requirements for the class of 2019.

      The bill also amends current law to provide that a student who has not met all graduation standards but who has met all credit, curriculum, and attendance requirements, must have taken the graduation proficiency assessment or assessments in order to be eligible for a comprehensive assessment of proficiencies utilizing techniques other than standardized tests as provided in section 3 of P.L.1979, c.241 (C.18A:7C-3).

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to delete references to college and career readiness. 

FISCAL IMPACT:

      This bill is not certified as requiring a fiscal note.