Christie's School Accountability Plan To Focus on Urban and Suburban Districts

The Christie administration's new accountability system for public schools will save its strongest measures for urban districts like Camden, Trenton, and Newark. But there may be a few suburban names coming under extra scrutiny, too.

Gov. Chris Christie yesterday rolled out the accountability plan being proposed to the federal government as an alternative to the rules that have existed for a decade under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

It will be heavily focused on the lowest-performing schools, now to be called "Priority Schools," offering assistance and often requiring changes at the threat of losing state or federal funding. Those changes could include everything from new teacher training to a longer school day to closure and replacement of all staff.

Tucked at the back of the 365-page document is the list of schools that would rate intervention if the new system were in place now. And while heavy with schools from New Jersey's cities, there also are some from suburbs like Westfield, South Brunswick, Paramus, and West Windsor-Plainsboro. (Matawan-Aberdeen is not on this list.)

They're on the list because the new accountability system also addresses schools where there are wide achievement gaps between students of different races, needs, and income—and where poverty is less a determining factor.

In all, 177 schools -- known as Focus Schools -- fell into this category, largely defined as the bottom 10 percent in terms of the achievement gaps between the highest- and lowest-performing student groups over three years.

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