Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week
So Why Didn't the Police Ever Investigate Michelle Rhee?
Remember the "amusing" story of how Michelle Rhee, in her first year of teaching in Baltimore, taped her students' mouths shut? How she tried to find the "humor" in making her second graders bleed? Remember when Alex Russo told us, when he heard about the story: "I'm not so sure I'm all that worried."I wonder what might have happened had Rhee been a teacher in Elizabe
JUN 05
Reformy Billionaires and the Money They Waste
Perhaps my favorite bad reformy argument -- one favored by Tom Moran, among others -- goes something like this:We should listen to billionaires when they opine about education because: 1) Well, they're billionaires, so they must know what they're talking about. 2) They don't have a direct stake in the outcome, so you can trust them.I often harp on the absurdity of Point #2: even though a plutocrat
JUN 01
One Newark is a Bad Plan. REALLY Bad.
This past week, State Superintendent Cami Anderson went on the offensive, making the case for her plan to restructure Newark's schools, One Newark. For Anderson, the problem isn't that her plan is illogical, innumerate, secretive, and ill-conceived.No, the problem, apparently, is "politics":Anderson: Political season is always tough. People say a lot of things, but my job was and always
Stronger than the Scorn: How do NJ schools really stack up?
This is my end of school year review for New Jersey schools. Indeed much of the data in this post is from years prior. Nonetheless, these data affirm a long standing strong position of New Jersey schools either in the U.S. or international context. On many occasions I’ve pointed out better and worse uses of national and international assessment data – of Mis-NAEPery and PISA-Palooza… wherein the m
JUN 02
On Teacher Effect vs. Other Stuff in New Jersey’s Growth Percentiles
PDF: BBaker.SGPs_and_OtherStuff In this post, I estimate a series of models to evaluate variation in New Jersey’s school median growth percentile measures. These measures of student growth are intended by the New Jersey Department of Education to serve as measures of both school and teacher effectiveness. That is, the effect that teachers and schools have on marginal changes in their median studen
Note to Cami: 100 excellent ways to create 100 excellent schools
Jersey Jazzman delivered yet another blistering critique of Cami Anderson's disastrous One Newark plan calling it "illogical, innumerate, secretive, and ill-conceived". Sir Duke once again fills his post with charts, graphs, data, links to studies—you know, actual proof—that this will probably go down as the biggest public policy boondoggle in NJ history. He pointed out that Cami likes t
JUN 01
My open letter to Gov. Christie
In the spirit of fellow educator, and journalist, Melissa Harris Perry, I bring you my version of her open letters to leaders:Dear Governor Christie,It's me, Marie. I heard you recently gave your staff huge raises. That's fantastic! I'm sure they worked very hard to help get you re-elected, and are very deserving. And now that they are back on the public payroll, you can reward them on the taxpaye
Is Hespe lying? Afraid of Cami? Disrespectful of parents? All three?
Nearly a month ago, the parents of Newark’s Hawthorne Avenue School petitioned acting Education Commissioner David Hespe to ensure the school would not be closed without compliance with state administrative regulations that have the force of law. Hespe, a lawyer who is charged with a special obligation to uphold the law, has not only ignored […]
JUN 04
Good news, for a change: Watson-Coleman wins
Good news for those who remember when the Democratic Party championed causes other than those of George Norcross, his doppelganger Chris Christie, and his poodle, Steve Sweeney, the anti-union union guy. Bonnie Watson Coleman won the Democratic primary for the 12th Congressional district. Other commentators have made a point of saying she will–if we’re lucky–become the first African-American woman
JUN 02
NJEA, AFT: How about a robo-call apology for backing Cory Booker?
The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) spends a fortune of members’ dues money on what loosely could be called “communications”–advertising, promotion, public relations, marketing, and other methods of getting its message out. And, last year, it put a lot of that effort behind the election of Cory Booker as United States senator despite Booker’s […]
JUN 01
A vote for Booker is a vote for Christie
New Jersey’s top Democrats are cowards. New Jersey’s top Republicans are cowards. That is why Cory Booker, who did nothing for Newark but divide it, preside over unprecedented bloodshed in its streets, and form a diabolical alliance with Chris Christie to suppress its people, will walk to his re-election in November. I mourn for […]