As fall 2023 begins on September 23 and ends on December 22, I am reminded of the importance of healthy transitions. During this autumn season when the duration of sunlight decreases, and the temperatures cools, the relationships teachers form with their students operate inversely. As a former teacher, I remember the great anticipation of meeting the students on my class rosters, delighted in the interesting facts and tidbits about their lives that I learned during our initial days and weeks together, all while adjusting our shared learning environment over the course of the academic year to reflect what they needed to grow and thrive, similar to our seasonal changes in New Jersey. With all that you, teachers, do, please allocate time this month to attune your self-care goals to the change in season.

As shared in part one of my two-part message in August, at the New Jersey Department of Education, our goal is to not only prepare students for postsecondary success, but to ensure our teachers have the supports to help them thrive. Hopefully, you have explored the guidance and enhanced instructional resources on the New Jersey Student Learning Standards website that can assist you throughout the school year. Please view my Back-to-School message where I highlight the New Jersey Department of Education’s core values and tenets.

Wishing you an awesome school year! 

The Office of Performance Management is within the Division of Educational Services at the New Jersey Department of Education. The Office’s mission is to empower and support educators and the public to learn more and start conversations by:

• providing accessible, accurate, and relevant reporting and analysis;
• determining methodology to identify schools and districts for support, accountability, and recognition;
• promoting research; and
• improving the strategic use of data.

The major workstreams of the Office of Performance Management are:

• Release of the annual School Performance Reports;
• Implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability system;
• Calculation of graduation rates;
• Nomination of National Blue Ribbon Schools; and
• Response to internal and external data requests.

School Performance Reports

The School Performance Reports reflect the New Jersey Department of Education’s commitment to providing parents, students, and school communities with a large variety of information about each school and district. These reports can be used as a tool to help evaluate whether all students have equitable access to high-quality education. We encourage you to use these reports to learn more, start conversations, and engage within your communities.

On our School Performance Reports resources page, we provide many resources that explain where the data in the reports comes from and how it is calculated. We also have resources and guides with ideas of how to use the reports and start conversations.

The Office of Performance Management is always looking for feedback on how we can improve the School Performance Reports in the future. After reviewing the reports, please take our feedback survey to let us know what you liked and how we can make the reports more useful.

Additional Resources

We have additional resources available about the other workstreams in our office:

• ESSA Accountability
  Includes an overview of our accountability system and annual data related to the accountability system
• Graduation & Postsecondary
  Includes annual graduation rate data and resources about how graduation rates are calculated and reported
• National Blue Ribbon Schools
  Provides an overview of the program and nomination process, eligibility requirements, and information on schools that have won the award in previous years

Contact Us

Accountability: performancemanagement@doe.nj.gov

Blue Ribbon: BlueRibbon@doe.nj.gov

School Performance Reports and other inquiries: reportcard@doe.nj.gov