How does the State judge your school district?
Labor Day weekend has arrived, and school is just days away from being back in session statewide. Children will have new teachers, and school districts might have new requirements. What does that mean?
The New Jersey State Board of Education (NJBOE) has proposed changes on how they evaluate and define “low performing” school districts. If you have followed our communications for any length of time, you should have heard about the Quality Single Accountability Continuum – known as the QSAC score. If you recall, school districts faced pressure to implement the age-inappropriate Sex Ed learning standards adopted by the NJBOE in 2020. The only means of enforcement was for the State to deduct points from a school district’s QSAC score.
A school might lose four points out of 100 for failing (or refusing) to teach the Sex Ed learning standards. Yet, most school boards insisted to parents that because of the QSAC score, they had no choice but to do whatever the State approved as the learning standard, or the school was at risk of losing state funding. That was simply not accurate!
There are five sections to the QSAC score. If a district scores above 80 points in each area, it is considered a “high performing district.” Losing four points in the Instruction and Program section posed no serious risks to state funding.
But now, the NJ Department of Education will begin to take into account the K-12 Transgender Diversity Curriculum law and the original LGBTQ contributions law, when assessing a school’s QSAC score. Therefore, a greater emphasis will be placed on developing a child’s view of sex and gender for a school district to attain a “high performing” score.
On the other hand, if the proposed changes are approved, the weight and value of “student achievement scores” will be lowered, as “student progress” will instead be considered more highly.
I think this raises the question many parents are asking. Why is the State more concerned about sexual orientation and gender identity than “academic achievement” in Math and English? I can not answer that question in this short email format, but I do want to remind you what rights parents have as a new school year begins.
1. You have the right to review all curriculum and materials used in class.
2. You have the right to request your child can not check out a certain book title from the school library.
3. You have the right to opt your child out of the Sex Ed portion of Health Class, and any student survey, such as those that ask about sexual beliefs and behaviors.
In closing, I want to encourage you to build a relationship with your child’s teacher(s). Let them know how much you appreciate the time and energy they dedicate each year teaching a new group of students. You might discover a wonderful educator who simply wants to do the right thing, but fears reprisal from colleagues if they express their conservative beliefs. Offer them prayer and let them know there is a community of believers who are standing in the gap for them as they faithfully carry out their duties with Biblical convictions.
