A new bill would create a statewide education office to combat educational delays and regressions commonly cited as a result of pandemic-related school disruptions, one of a slew of bills lawmakers have introduced to combat so-called learning loss.<\/p>\n
The measure (S3518<\/a>) would create an Office of the Learning Loss Czar within the executive branch to work with the Department of Education. The new position would be tasked with finding educational tools that have shown to be effective in \u201cidentifying and reversing student learning loss.\u201d Those tools would go to a \u201cresource bank\u201d that school districts could access and submit their own ideas to, the bill says.<\/p>\n The position would be a gubernatorial appointment and they would serve the length of that governor\u2019s term.<\/p>\n Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. <\/em>Sign up for The 74 Newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p> Few bills targeting learning loss have advanced out of the full Legislature. The one to create a learning loss czar was introduced by state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), who has sponsored dozens of bills to increase the number of teachers statewide<\/a>, require officials to study high school dropout rates<\/a>, push for more studies on learning loss, and more.<\/p>\n Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn (R-Monmouth) has introduced her own bill<\/a> to create a learning loss task force, which she suggested could be combined with Ruiz\u2019s bill or other education legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day that passes that we don\u2019t address how this impacts kids more and more, we\u2019re widening the gaps that exist today,\u201d Flynn said in an interview. \u201cUntil these bills are moved forward, I don\u2019t think the Department of Education will take it seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Flynn said this should be a top priority of the Legislature. As long as these bills go without advancing, she said, \u201cit\u2019s a wasted opportunity to address this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n Results from standardized tests given last spring<\/a> show students in grades 3 to 9 scored lower on nearly every measure since 2015, when the test was first administered. The data was our first glimpse at how COVID-related school disruptions affected test scores.<\/p>\n Flynn said while she\u2019d like to work with Ruiz and other Democrats on policies addressing what students lost during the pandemic, she also wants to see bills that have already been introduced see some movement.<\/p>\n \u201cQuite honestly, I don\u2019t think any other educational bills should be presented unless they address learning loss, state funding, and mental health needs of our students. I think that needs to be a main focus as a Legislature right now,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The governor launched a partnership program<\/a> in December for 5,000 volunteers and community organizations to work with struggling students.<\/p>\n New Jersey Monitor<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com<\/a>. Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new bill would create a statewide education office to combat educational delays and regressions commonly cited as a result of pandemic-related school disruptions, one of a slew of bills lawmakers have introduced to combat so-called learning loss. The measure (S3518) would create an Office of the Learning Loss Czar within the executive branch to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":703477,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[190],"tags":[1103,1108,869,1056],"series":[1059],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/703474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/703474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703478,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/703474\/revisions\/703478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703474"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=703474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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