Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week
Once Again: There Are No Miracle Charter Schools
Relinquishers gotta relinquish:It’s not a stretch to say that charter schools are some of the biggest winners in this year’s high school rankings list. Even though charters educate just five percent of American students, they represent 30 percent of the top ten schools in this year’s rankings. What’s more—and this is really the kicker—they’re the only ones in the top ten that do not use selective
AUG 21
The Myth of The Burned-Out Senior Teacher: Part II
In my last post, I questioned the idea of the senior, burned-out teacher being a major policy concern, simply on the basis of the fact that there really aren't that many senior teachers to begin with.But what does the literature say about relative teacher effectiveness late in a career? What do we know about teachers who enter the late stages of their professions, and their effect on student outco
AUG 19
The Myth of The Burned-Out Senior Teacher: Part I
Non-teacher David Boies is absolutely convinced that we are plagued by old, bad, burned-out teachers; that's why we need to get rid of tenure, see, and replace them with young, inexperienced, poorly-trained teachers, like the ones at TFA, the vast majority of whom will leave teaching after three years. Makes complete sense...Non-teacher Jonathan Alter is also gravely concerned that all of these ba
The Ten Commandments of Public Education
I. Public schools are open to everyone. Thou shalt not call charter schools public because they aren't.Charter schools do not have elected boards that answer to the public Charter schools are not subject to the same laws and regulations as public schoolsCharter schools can and do cherry pick the best studentsThrough convoluted business deals many charter school operators make enormous sums of mone
A short blog, a big problem–can anyone help this Cami victim?
Can anyone help this victim of Cami’s “On Newark” plan? I know there are many such but this story struck a never because I knew a young man named Michael Davis who worked at St. Benedict’s Prep. He lived in the South Ward and walked through Weequahic Park twice a day–in the morning on his way […]
AUG 28
Baraka “not satisfied” after meetings with Hespe, Anderson–and Christie disses him again
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and state Education Commissioner David Hespe agreed to give the “One Newark” plan ten days from the opening of school to resolve its obvious flaws. Meanwhile, he has demanded that state-imposed schools superintendent Cami Anderson provide him with extensive information about the inner workings of the plan that will close neighborhood public schools […]
AUG 27
Boycott the cruel “One Newark” plan
Angry men and women stood in the unforgiving noontime heat before television cameras Wednesday to explain why Newark parents should boycott the opening of school next week–but none was more persuasive than Deseret Richardson who didn’t come there for that reason at all. Richardson, 83, barely able to walk, was forced to be there, to enroll […]
AUG 23
Hey, Mr. Mayor–face down Christie’s gangbangers!
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka got a lot of media attention Friday when he called a press conference to talk about the school enrollment debacle. He probably faced more cameras than at any time since his election. He also faced growing outrage and skepticism from parents growing weary of having the state use their children as guinea pigs in […]