file photo by Boyd Loving
By Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on April 04, 2017 at 7:31 AM, updated April 04, 2017 at 11:14 AM
TRENTON — New Jersey’s new plan for grading its schools for the federal government places less weight on passing state exams and extra importance on other factors, such as the performance of students learning to speak English and academic progress among students who don’t pass standardized tests.
The state Monday filed its federal accountability plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the new federal education law that replaced No Child Left Behind. All states are required to file a plan to the federal government.
The ESSA plan calls for decreasing the importance of standardized test scores in rating schools and giving states more flexibility to decide how to intervene in struggling school districts.