In September of 2005, Lucille Davy was appointed Acting Commissioner of Education. Ms. Davy verbally communicated to MACC support for the formation of a state committee consisting of NJDOE and MACC staff. Since then, a group of Senior and Program staff have begun meeting as an informal State Committee, providing guidance and planning for the work of the NJ MACC team. The New Jersey State Committee (NJ SC) has discussed the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum, School Restructuring and other initiatives that have been identified as priorities by the Commissioner or other NJDOE staff.
One of the challenges for the NJ SC is to enhance the level of collaboration among the key departments and programs to work together to plan and implement local and federal policies. Another challenge is to determine how to disseminate information to and gather feedback from other NJDOE staff, particularly concerning student populations (LEP, Special Education) and state-level initiatives (Abbott). MACC will utilize strategies from research on effective SEAs to guide the work with the New Jersey State Committee.
The immediate goal of the work with the State Committee is to establish and maintain collaboration and shared decision-making across the programs and offices around NJQSAC and other current policies. The long-term goal is to build state capacity in the area of resource sharing and comprehensive planning across divisions for the purpose of meeting the technical assistance needs of schools and districts identified for improvement.