New Jersey Education Equity Project - Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies

Principal Investigators: Dr. Vandeen A. Campbell and Dr. Charles M. Payne

The New Jersey Education Equity Project is a series of studies mapping educational experiences, opportunities, and outcomes across the state with a focus on monitoring for equity (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, 2019) by re-analyzing and re-presenting available state data. One of the ways in which equity has been centered in the project is to present a clearer picture of what segregation means for the educational experience in the state. Beyond segregation, within all types of schools, are educational opportunities equitably distributed?

An aim of the project is to zero-in on areas of the educational experience which can be leveraged to positively impact student outcomes and study them deeply using quantitative and qualitative methodology. High leverage areas include positive, supportive, and well-resourced school environments; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) access; and adequate preparation for college and the workforce in ways that can ultimately close socioeconomic gaps. The studies lead to well-researched discussions of policy and practice solutions and convenings with a wide range of stakeholders, advancing strategic use of the research.

Driven by the narrative of possibility (Payne & Ortiz, 2017), another aim of the project is to identify and learn from schools which do better with traditionally underserved populations. Are there schools which are positive outliers and what can we learn from them?
Studies within the NJ Education Equity project are listed below.

The High School Experience study investigates disparities in opportunities and outcomes for high school students in the state along lines of segregation and by student subgroups. The study intends to shed light on the high school experience of racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants and English learners, and special education students, and, where possible, focus on students’ trajectory. Beginning with the transition from 8th to 9th grade, where are the opportunities? What are the potholes? What does the pipeline to adulthood look like? Where are we losing young people? The study will yield numerous public reports and research papers within the topic areas listed below.

Mapping the Landscape. Partially funded by the New Jersey State Policy Lab (NJSPL) the study has led to a series of policy and practitioner-oriented reports and data exploration dashboards based on school- and district-level data released publicly by NJ Department of Education and Civil Rights Data Collection. Topics of released reports include:

Science course-taking patterns
Math course-taking patterns
Suspension patterns

Forthcoming reports will cover:

Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and dual enrollment (DE)
Career and technical education (CTE)
School resources and climate
High school graduation, college readiness, and college enrollment

Cohort Study. With partial support from Rutgers University Research Council, the study will also lead to longitudinal research studying the factors affecting postsecondary outcomes of cohorts of high school freshmen in the state. Key research questions are: What school conditions are associated with high school freshmen cohorts staying on-track? Considering a range of factors, which are most predictive of postsecondary success?

Evaluate Policies. Other research will evaluate various statewide or local policies such as the impact of the portfolio degree option for graduation requirements in mathematics and English language arts and the option to offer Algebra I in 8th grade.

With funding from the New Jersey State Policy Lab and the American Education Research Association (AERA)-National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Grant Program, a study of high school STEM pathways has been launched. The study identifies the science course pathways common in NJ high schools and test their effectiveness. What science course pathways are predictive of pursuing and persisting in a STEM major? How does this vary for racial/ethnic and gender subgroups of students and by various school characteristics? What can we learn from schools serving underrepresented minorities in STEM but having strong science course pathways?

This study draws primarily on data from the New Jersey Department of Education School Performance Reports and looks specifically at what we know about segregated school environments. What happens when Black and Brown students are concentrated in schools with higher levels of poverty, in a way that poor White children are not concentrated? The report will present data covering the K-12 grade span.

According to the U.S. Census, 25% of the U.S. population will identify as Latinx by 2060. In 2022-23, Latinx students in NJ already represented over a third of the public school population. Despite a steady growth as a percentage of the school age population, the schooling of Latinx students largely takes place in contexts that inadequately provide the appropriate level of resources required to support their ongoing learning, development, and well-being.

This report brief by the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University – Newark and the Latino Action Network Foundation highlights data from The Latinx Experience in NJ Schools: A Preliminary Overview to underscore the experiences of Latinx students across a variety of metrics from preschool to postsecondary education over the past decade. Below, please find the full report, report brief, Proficiency Levels by Subgroup and State in an Excel Sheet, and a dashboard summarizing key trends in learning opportunities and achievement for Latinx Children in New Jersey in 2021-2022.

We invite you to a conversation on Saturday, May 11^th, 10:00 am-2:00 pm, to discuss the implications of the report and begin to set an agenda for action. Click on the link to register: https://www.lanfoundation.org/event-details/the-latinx-experience-in-nj-schools-a-preliminary-overview-report-launch.

Please click here to see more information and reports.

A new open-access encyclopedia entry, “Bilingual Education in the United States,” was published in the journal Encyclopedia, co-authored by researchers at the Cornwall Center—Swati Dontamsetti (Doctoral Candidate), Claudia Castillo-Lavergne (Postdoctoral Associate – Research Practice Partnerships), and Vandeen Campbell (Assistant Research Professor and Associate Director).

The entry provides an overview of how bilingual education in the U.S. has developed over time, examining changes in terminology, policy, program models, and research. It traces the history of bilingual education from English-only approaches to contemporary dual language models that incorporate students’ home languages, and reviews how federal and state policies have shaped these shifts. It also summarizes research on the academic and social outcomes associated with bilingual education, discusses limitations of English-only assessment systems, and identifies gaps in how bilingual programs are evaluated and implemented across states.

This work was developed as part of the Cornwall Center’s educational equity research series and supported in part by funding from the Institute for Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University – Newark.