More "What Research?!"
As I've moaned before, I hate it when anyone says "research shows..." and then refuses to cite the research. I mean, I *really* hate it: Teachers are the No. 1 in-school factor affecting student success. Research says a highly effective teacher can help students achieve as much as an additional year's worth of academic gains over one school year compared with a less effective teacher. [...] Research shows that there are both outstanding teachers and ineffective teachers across all levels of experience. According to two recent studies, the vast majority of seniority-based layoffs... more »
Noble Charter Update
Earlier this week, I took a look at the exercise in union-bashing propaganda that Juan Williams and Kyle Olson put out, disguised as a documentary about Noble Street Charter Network schools in Chicago. It turns out Noble is serving a substantially different student population than the rest of the CPS public high schools, which may well account for its higher test scores. There's also evidence that Noble has very high attrition rates. Two days before my post, Noble had come under some harsh criticism from Congressman Danny Davis: I found that in 2009: - Noble Street suspended 51... more »
What a Tenure-Free Future Looks Like
*Transcript of recorded conversation* *Office of Freeholder xxxxx xxxxx* *County of xxxxx, NJ* *April 3, 2015* Hello?... Joey, hey how are you?... Good, good... Yeah, I got your email... OK, let me see if I got this right: You've got a councilman who needs a favor for his niece: she's an artist... yeah, young people, what're you goin' do?... and she needs a job, and is thinking about teaching. No training as a teacher, no education degree... yeah, don't worry, that's fine, we'll get her into an alternate route thing... And then you've also got this "friend" who's been "generous." He... more »
War On Teachers=War On Women, Jersey Style
Josh Henne points out how Governor Christie seems to have a problem with women: March is Women’s History Month. Unfortunately, it’s worth noting that Gov. Chris Christie’s own public history with women — through both word and deed — is pockmarked with marginalization, mockery and even malice. It’s been this way right from the start. In 2010, with the stroke of a pen, Gov. Christie eliminated a $7.4 million budget line that provided basic reproductive health services. This money helped support critical care and cancer screenings for more than 135,000 patients. It covered clinical bre... more »
Smart ALEC in New Jersey
Chris Christie must be absolutely thrilled to be in Jerusalem today, so he doesn't have to answer to this superb report in the *Star-Ledger* from Salvador Rizzo: A *Star-Ledger* analysis of hundreds of documents shows that ALEC bills are surfacing in New Jersey, where Republican Gov. Chris Christie is trying to remake the state, frequently against the wishes of a Democrat-controlled Legislature. Drawing on bills crafted by the council, on New Jersey legislation and dozens of e-mails by Christie staffers and others, *The Star-Ledger* found a pattern of similarities between ALEC’s p... more »
Prejudice Alive & Well in Louisiana Charters?
Could this possibly be a late, bad April Fools joke? A state Senate committee approved legislation Thursday that *would allow charter schools to refuse to admit students on the basis of their ability to speak English, their sexual orientation or other factors.* State Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, said his bill is designed to ensure that executive branch agencies and local governments stop including bans on discrimination against characteristics not listed in state law as a condition for private companies to do business with their agencies. The state Department of Education contracts wit... more »
Funding, Schunding!
It's hard to think of an article that could get more stuff wrong than this one from the Connecticut Council for Education Reform: Today, we are taking a look at an argument frequently made in opposition to education reform: namely, that Connecticut’s achievement gap - which is the largest in the nation - is due to poverty, and therefore, the education system, and the adults within it, cannot be held responsible for providing a high-quality education to *all *students.While poverty and a lack of parenting are used as convenient scapegoats to explain the achievement gap in Connecticut... more »
No Bull in Chicago
Let's head over to Chicago for a bit... I've blogged about the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) before, mostly as it relates to the smarmy Jonah Edelman and his scheme to use extremely wealthy people's money to buy himself enough seats in the Illinois Legislature to screw over teachers. This is just one aspect of a larger war on the Windy City's educators, spearheaded by the profane and insufferably smug Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and abetted by the reliably sycophantic *Chicago Tribune*. Last month, Chicago was in the national education press again, this time over the antics of the Noble Stre... more »
Jersey Jazzman: Year Three Begins!
I now enter my terrible twos... I'm very grateful to all of you for reading, retweeting, "liking," commenting, and inspiring me in this venture. I'll be more specific below; but first, indulge me for a minute or two in a birthday rant: This blog has garnered more and more attention lately, to the point that I've tripled my audience over the last year. That's very gratifying, and I appreciate everyone's support, *but it's clearly not good enough.* While I can see that some of the questions and arguments I've put forward have entered the conversation around education "reform," particu... more »
Tenure Bogeyman Watch
The Tenure Bogeyman is coming to eat your school! Good thing corporate America is here to warn you, in the form of the NJ Chamber of Commerce: Unfortunately, New Jersey suffers from one of the nation’s largest achievement gaps between rich and poor students. I see this frequently in my manufacturing company in Linden. We have tried to hire production personnel and have been shocked to find that applicants cannot subtract fractions. The problem, 23⁄4 minus 5⁄8 , was answered correctly by only six of 100 applicants, and most had high school diplomas. As a small-business owner, I can t... more »
They Just Don't Trust Teachers
When I went in for my yearly union indoctrination, they told me the goal is to *only* be a good teacher when I have my observation. That's when the union gives us permission to abandon our usual sloth and really shine; the rest of the time, we teachers pretty much post on Facebook, eat snacks, and let the kids run amuck. But damn these corporate reformers - they've figured out our nefarious scheme! The state announced new twists Wednesday in its effort to devise better teacher evaluations: *requiring unannounced classroom observations, including some by educators from outside the t... more »
Top-Secret Testing!
Shhh... the high school tests that the NJ DOE is contracting out are apparently a matter of national security: *The new high school testing is also on the way, although its details are a closely guarded secret.* The budget outline said that the $1.7 million would go toward implementation of “five new end-of-course exams,” presumably similar to the subject tests that the state has tried with biology and algebra. Department spokesman Justin Barra said they would be part of a nationwide testing initiative known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PAR... more »
More Like This - CT Gov Gets Schooled
I almost feel sorry for reformy CT Governor Dannel Malloy - almost: Malloy will be on cable TV news sometime very soon. The articulate teacher here, not so much... ADDING: Jon Pelto has more on Malloy.
More Like This - Student Edition
Much, much more like this! Tia Torres for President 2048. I can't wait!
Why Weren't Charter Teachers Teaching Today?
I'm sure you will be as shocked as I was to find out that hundreds of teachers were not in school today; instead, they were in Atlantic City! ATLANTIC CITY -- Administrators and teachers packed Bally's for a 2-day education conference. The event is titled "Navigating Toward Quality Education". Which is the main focus on developing and sharing teaching techniques to help strengthen charter schools throughout the state. New Jersey educators from through out the state all traveled into the heart of Atlantic City for the fourth annual New Jersey charter school conference. The teachers a... more »
Pesky Democracy Stopping Charters!
When are you people going to stop exercising your rights and just take what's good for you? Tighter standards, better ways to measure progress, increased accountability and an easier regulatory environment are what acting N.J. Department of Education chief Christopher Cerf says he has planned for the state’s charter schools as a way to encourage growth and educational quality. “These are exciting times for charter schools,” said Cerf, speaking Monday at the New Jersey Charter School Association conference at Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino. “It’s also a time for change, and it’... more »
Who's Copping Out?
The problem in our poorest schools these days is that teachers just don't care enough: Some teachers, including Passaic County Education Association President Joseph Cheff, argue that in schools with high concentrations of very poor students, poverty has to be alleviated before achievement can improve. New Jersey’s acting education commissioner, Chris Cerf, says that’s a cop-out. “Of course poverty and circumstances play a very significant role in academic outcomes,” Cerf said. “But the standard is, can we do better?” Teacher quality is the biggest in-school factor affecting achieve... more »
The "Real" World
Bruce Baker breaks down two reformy arguments that are at the intellectual level of what I hear daily on the monkey bars: Taxpayer outrage arguments are in style these days (as if they ever really go out of style). Two particular taxpayer outrage arguments that have existed for some time seem to be making a bit of resurgence of late. Or, at least I think I’ve been seeing these arguments a bit more lately in the blogosphere and on twitter. First, since now is the era of crapping on public school teachers and arguing for increased accountability specifically on teachers for improving... more »
Arne Duncan: Indifferent Maniac
What a nutcase: Publishing teachers' ratings in the newspaper in the way *The New York Times *and other outlets have done recently is not a good use of performance data, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in an interview yesterday. "Do you need to publish every single teacher's rating in the paper? I don't think you do," he said. "There's not much of an upside there, and there's a tremendous downside for teachers. We're at a time where morale is at a record low. ... We need to be sort of strengthening teachers, and elevating and supporting them." *So how does this square w... more »
How To Convince Me the Merit Pay Fairy Is Real:
This is one of the most despicable things I have read in this whole reformy debate, and it stands as evidence as to why billionaires should not be influencing education policy. From Bill Turque of the *Washington Post*, writing about the D.C. schools: One of the more striking line items on the operating side is for private grant funds. They averaged about $21 million between 2010 and 2012, as the Broad, Arnold, Walton and Robertson foundations supported the labor contract negotiated by former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, one that eliminated seniority preferences and establ... more »
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