Our Local Government Research group serves as an independent Comprehensive Accountability Office (CAO) that monitors and reports on each districts’ compliance using an Accountability Scorecard.
In the 1980’s the New Jersey State Board of Education began monitoring several school districts’ performance, finding that the education provided to school children in some poor communities was inadequate and unconstitutional. At that time, thirty-one districts came under state control. The state restored school board authority to Newark, Jersey City, and Paterson on a provisional basis in 2018. Compliance with transition plans are a condition of resuming full local control of their affairs, so each of these districts have worked to improve and disengage from N.J. Department of Education intervention and oversight.