Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week
How White People Rationalize the Unequal Governance Of Schools
A caveat before I begin: you really shouldn't listen to anything that I or any other white, suburban, middle-class person has to say about Camden's schools until you've heard from the good people who work in those schools (like Keith Benson), send their children to those schools (like MoNeke Ragsdale), or actually attend those schools (like Nala Johnson).Once you've heard from them, you can, if yo
New Report on the Consequences of Inadequately Funded Schools
Yesterday, the Education Law Center released a report they commissioned from yours truly about the consequences of inadequately funding school districts."Shortchanging New Jersey Students: How Inadequate Funding Has Led to Reduced Staff and Growing Disparities in the State’s Public Schools" is a look at how students are affected when the state refuses to meet its obligations and give sch
JUL 09
Teacher Evaluation and the Illusion of Precision
I testified before the NJ State Board of Education today about our year-old teacher evaluation system, AchieveNJ -- aka Operation Hindenburg. Time was limited to five minutes, so I focused on something I hope to be exploring more fully this month: the illusion of precision found in teacher evaluations.For now, here's today's testimony.* * *AchieveNJ, as currently constituted, is fundamentally flaw
JUL 08
Thomas Piketty Has Eric Hanushek's Number
I'm just starting Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, which puts me months behind the mass of American public intellectuals who were obsessing about the tome this spring, but will give me the advantage of being able to say I actually read the thing.Last night, I came across a quote that was so perfectly relevant to the current state of education policy research that I was prepared to typ
JUL 07
Earth to @starledger: There Are No Miracle Charter Schools
What do you do with someone who, when presented with the truth time and time again, refuses to see it? What do you do when a person of influence -- for example, the Star-Ledger's Editorial Page Editor, Tom Moran -- repeatedly, stubbornly, infuriatingly continues to perpetuate myths that are demonstrably untrue?Newark, for all its woes, is a city that’s surprisingly easy to fall in love with if you
Chronicles of (the conceptually incoherent & empirically invalid world of) VergarNYa
As with the Vergara case in California, a central claim of the New York City Parents Union is that the presence of statutory tenure protections in New York State leads to a persistent and systematic deprivation of a sound basic education which falls disproportionately on the state’s low income and minority children. Let’s review again the basic structure of this argument. The argument challenges s
NJ BOE Testimony Part III: Horror Stories from Paterson
Be sure to check out NJEA member testimony at the NJ State Board of Education Parts I and II. So, you think you have it bad. You think your administrators didn’t fully implement the new evaluation system. You think you could have gotten a higher score in this domain or that. How would you like to be an educator in a state controlled district? Paterson Education Association member, Gennaro Torto
NJ BOE Testimony Part II: Was human error or intentional omission to blame for PARCC pilot report?
In part 2 of this series of posts on NJEA's July 9th lobby day at the state Board of Ed, Spanish teacher and education activist, Heidi Maria Brown, questions Data Commissioner Bari Erlichson's obvious omission of any negative feedback on the state's PARCC trials, and why some board members have not done more to get to the truth.◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊Good afternoon. My name is Heidi Maria Brown. I’m
Educators stand up, speak out, fight back: NJBOE Testimony Part l
Yesterday was an NJEA Lobby Day at the NJ State Board of Education, and as usual, our members didn't disappoint. There was a good crowd, among which were many first-time speakers. I'm proud to be part of an association that includes so many articulate and passionate educators who know the facts and are not blinded by empty rhetoric nor cowed by bullying and aggression. I'm optimistic that the numb
What a “free press”–pause here for laughter–means to Newark: Cowardice
For the first time in nearly two centuries, Newark–the largest city in the eighth largest state in America–will not be home to a daily newspaper. After Sept. 8, The Star-Ledger will move its operations to Woodbridge and Edison, leaving the city newspaperless for the first time since the Daily Advertiser opened in the city in […]
JUL 05
Newark: It’s time to decide to fight or to surrender.
Newark’s leadership and its people face an extraordinary challenge in the next few weeks. They either will collapse in the face of Chris Christie’s wily plan to save his phony reputation as an educational “reformer” in time for the presidential primaries–or they will stand strong and use whatever means are necessary to force the state to return local […]