Regional Achievement Centers

Mary Beth Zenyuk

Regional Achievement Centers

            According to the Regional Achievement Center’s mission statement, “New Jersey’s Regional Achievement Centers (RAC), struggling schools, and their districts will partner to set goals for student growth, put proven turnabout principles into action, and use data to drive decision-making and accountability” ( http://www.state.nj.us/education/rac/). They plan to work together to close the achievement gap and prepare all students for success in college and career. The achievement gap is the difference in performance between low-income and minority students compared to that of their peers often measured by standardized tests. According to New Jersey Commissioner Chris Cerf, “the regional achievement centers will be led by some of the best educators in the country, and they will be responsible for a specific degree of improvement in a more intense, organized and coherent way, with data specific to each school and district” (http://www.state.nj.us/education/rac/).

            Regional Achievement Centers use the following guiding principles, partnership, research based, support, and accountability. Working together with the Priority and Focus schools and their districts, the RAC puts school turnabout principles proven to drive student achievement into action. Priority schools are identified by the department as the lowest-performing five percent of Title 1 schools across the state based on proficiency rates and lack of student progress. Any non-Title 1 school that would otherwise meet the same criteria will also be designated as a Priority school (http://www.state.nj.us/education/rac/).  10 percent of Title 1 schools are identified as Focus schools. Focus schools are identified based upon achievement gaps between subgroups, low performance among subgroups, or low graduation rates. The RAC regularly provides high impact professional development to teachers, leaders, and Regional Achievement Center teams. The resources they provide are targeted to support Priority and Focus schools. The RAC sets clear goals and expects data driven decision making, that is why RAC teams, Priority and Focus schools and their districts are held directly responsible for results.

            The Regional Achievement Center teams work collaboratively with Priority and Focus school and their districts to put research based turnaround principles into action. These turnabout principles include school leadership, school climate and culture, effective instruction, curriculum, assessment, and intervention system, effective staffing practices, and enabling the effective use of data. It also includes effective use of time and effective family and community engagement. The RAC aims to ensure that the principles have the ability to lead the turnabout effort while establishing school environments with a climate conductive to learning and a culture of high expectations. They also aim to ensure that all teachers utilize research-based effective instruction to meet the needs of all students. This includes ensuring that teachers have to materials needed to teach to the rigorous college and career ready standards. RAC hopes to develop the skills to better recruit, retain and develop effective teachers while ensuring school-wide use of data focused on improving teaching and learning, as well as climate and culture. They strive to redesigning time to better meet students need and increase teacher collaboration and increase academically focused family and community engagement.   

            Quality School Reviews will be performed in each Priority and Focus School to evaluate the schools current performance and determine the school’s needs in connection with each turnaround principle (http://www.state.nj.us/education/rac/). Based on the finding the RAC teams will work to develop comprehensive and individual’s school improvement plans. Interventions in Priority Schools will be closely monitored and continue for a three-year period, providing schools the time needed to implement required changes and demonstrate improvement in student achievement. Priority schools that fail to implement the required interventions may become subject to state-ordered closure or other actions.  Focus school interventions will continue for a minimum of two years, at which time a school could exit status if all requirements for improvement are met (http://www.state.nj.us/education/rac/).