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Rev. Reginald Jackson to State Board on SRA

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Members of the State Board:

I regret I cannot be present today to personally speak before you, but I am on a previous commitment out of state. However, I write you today to ask you not to rescind your previous decision to end the use of the SRA in New Jersey’s public schools. That decision made two years ago was the correct decision. For too many years we have allowed our children and parents to be deceived into believing that children have received a quality education when we know they haven’t. For too long we have devalued the diplomas of those who have received a quality education by allowing some students to get a diploma through an easier route.

In addition to serving on the Orange Board of Education I also serve as President of the Board of Trustees of Essex County College. At Essex and other community colleges in urban areas in the state we have an overwhelming number students who come from urban schools who graduated, but need remedial help. In particular, 80% of the New Jersey Stars need remedial help. What does this say about the quality of the diplomas we are awarding?

For the almost thirty years that I have been in New Jersey I have heard about how we are going to reform the public schools. Is continuing the SRA reform? There will be no greater example of our failure to be committed to this reform than if we continue the SRA. No matter what the studies say, the SRA is still a dummied down way of graduating. No matter how we dress it up the SRA still means students couldn’t pass the standard test. No matter how we rationalize it the SRA is a means to get students out of school, knowing they have not mastered state requirements.

New Jersey brags as it misleads its citizens, claiming to be number one in high school graduates, but if we subtract those who graduated by the SRA New Jersey falls to twenty fourth. Every June at graduation ceremonies across the state superintendents declare, “I certify that the following students have met all state requirements.” Are we really being honest?

I urge you not to retreat from your previous decision. It is tough, but it is right for our students and their future, and it challenges us to do what we have been claiming to do for all these years, reform the public schools.