Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge: 2016 Annual Performance Report. New Jersey
Author: State of New Jersey, Office of the Governor
Date: 2017-06-00
Type: Tests/Questionnaires
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,State Programs,Educational Quality,Accountability,Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Access to Education,Program Validation,Child Development,Academic Standards,Educational Assessment,Health Promotion,Family School Relationship,Preschool Children,Preschool Teachers,Teacher Competencies,Credentials,Teacher Characteristics,School Readiness,Outcome Measures,Tables (Data),Educational Legislation,Federal Aid,Federal Legislation,Federal Programs

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2016 describes New Jersey's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies New Jersey will implement to address those challenges. The cross agency RTT-ELC team has continued to implement the eleven projects that the federal partners have approved in New Jersey's Scope of Work (SOW). After year three of implementation, the majority of tasks within each of the projects have been completed within the timeframes approved within the SOW. Amongst the various activities and tasks, three initiatives stand out as accomplishments: (1) Project 9: Preschool-3rd Grade Initiative. The New Jersey Department of Education, in partnership with Rutgers University, Graduate School of Education (GSE) and the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) have developed First through Third Grade Implementation Guidelines with funding provided by the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) Grant (2) Project 8: Data Systems; This past year has been a productive year for the data project as several project milestones and deliverables have been met or are in progress. (3) Project 6: Family Engagement and Health Connections; This project is one of the most robust projects in the grant as there are major activities spread through all of the participating state agencies. Two activities have made significant progress over the last year. They are the County Councils for Young Children (CCYCs), established in all 21 counties in New Jersey. This statewide initiative is a collaboration with the New Jersey Council for Young Children (NJCYC), DCF, DOE, DOH and DHS. The CCYCs were created to strengthen cooperative collaboration between parents, families, and local community providers with health, early care and education, family support, and other service providers. Next, the NJ Department of Health expanded a core health component, Central Intake Hubs (CIH), to improve access for parents and families to needed infant/child health services and supports in all counties. While there have been many lessons learned during the first two years of implementation, a focus on cross agency relations, a determination to get the &quot;right people on the bus&quot; by focusing on human capital and filling positions with quality individuals quickly, and an immediate effort to plan for sustainability, have been the biggest lesson learned. The largest challenge that New Jersey has faced in the third year of implementation is the timing of the sustainability planning. Initially, we had hoped to begin a formal process in the fall of 2016, but the planning was delayed because of difficulties securing an outside facilitator. Despite the challenges and the temporary delay that ensued, New Jersey is well on the way to planning for sustainability. Over the next six months, New Jersey will involve outside stakeholders as well as agency staff to develop a plan that follows the process outlined here: (1) Designate Interagency Planning Team as leadership team for sustainability planning process ( six meetings will be held in all); (2) Create Sustainability Planning Group, consisting of lead project staff across all relevant agencies, to support the sustainability planning (two meetings will be held); (3) Adopt Sustainability Framework to analyze all work; (4) Gather information on each project using the Sustainability Framework ; (5) Conduct stakeholder survey; and (6) Produce sustainability report in June 2017.