NJ Spotlight | Legislature Passes Charter Bill, But Advocates and Critics Want More Changes

NJ Spotlight | Legislature Passes Charter Bill, But Advocates and Critics Want More Changes:

Legislature Passes Charter Bill, But Advocates and Critics Want More Changes

Parochial school conversion measure passes, although reception remains in doubt

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By John Mooney, September 27 in Education |Post a Comment

One change to New Jersey's charter school law passed the legislature yesterday, while talk mounts that a broader rewrite of the state's 15-year-old statute governing the semi-autonomous schools may be in the offing.

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Senate Bill 1858

The state Senate passed a bill that would allow certain parochial and private schools to convert to charters. Few think that the proposal will lead to many such conversions, but may send a lifeline to at least a few closing Catholic schools.

The measure, which passed 25-13, is the only one of a half-dozen proposed reforms to New Jersey's charter school law that has now passed both the Senate and the Assembly. It goes next to

Why Naming Names Is Wrong - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Why Naming Names Is Wrong - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

Why Naming Names Is Wrong

by Diane Ravitch

Dear Deborah,

A year ago, the Los Angeles Times created a media sensation when it obtained the names and test scores of thousands of teachers, then commissioned a researcher to rate them in relation to their "effectiveness" in raising test scores. The Times then published online the names and ratings of those thousands of teachers. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan saluted the Times for rating teachers and naming names, but the overwhelming majority of testing and evaluation experts thought it was a terrible idea.

The experts understand that evaluating teachers by their students' test scores is fraught with problems. The ratings are inaccurate (there is a large margin of error) and unstable (a teacher who is effective one year may be ineffective the next year, depending on the composition of his or her classes since students are not randomly assigned). They are plagued with missing data, they ignore the effects of non-school factors. Nor do they

The Innovative Educator: Why I Don't Like Standardized Tests

The Innovative Educator: Why I Don't Like Standardized Tests:

Why I Don't Like Standardized Tests

by lnielsen.professional@gmail.com (The Innovative Educator)

Guest post by Cathy Earle

As an educator, I am sometimes called upon to teach children test preparation skills. I do so because these particular children are going to have to take a particular test – it's a reality. However, the first step of my test prep lesson is to tell the children that I don't like standardized tests, especially high-stakes tests. I don't believe they should have to take them, and, I tell them, I didn't subject my own kids to them.

Here are my major reasons for my antipathy toward standardized tests:

1. Standardized tests measure only certain kinds of knowledge or abilities -- arguably the lowest level and least important. They don't do a great job of measuring higher level thinking skills or creativity, and they say nothing about whether or not students are able to solve real-world problems, let alone whether or not students are willing

New option for parochial schools advances | Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/27/2011

New option for parochial schools advances | Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/27/2011:

New option for parochial schools advances

By Maya Rao and Claudia Vargas

Inquirer Staff Writers

TRENTON - High-performing private and parochial schools in failing districts, including Camden, could become taxpayer-funded charter schools under a bill that won final legislative approval Monday.

The Senate voted, 25-13, for the legislation, which Gov. Christie is expected to sign.

The proposal would let parochial schools, which have long struggled financially, avoid closure by eliminating all religious symbols and classes, and adopting a secular name. Existing faculty and staff would be given preference for jobs, and current students would avoid the charter-school lottery process.

Some parishes have leased or sold their former school buildings for use as charters. But that takes time, and enrollment preference is not given to the displaced students.

Supporters of the idea, who include Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) and Camden County Democratic leader George E. Norcross 3d, say the proposal provides another

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… - …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… - …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

Delicious Unveils New Features

by Larry Ferlazzo

The popular bookmarking site Delicious, now under new management since being sold by Yahoo, today unveils a new look and new features. You can read more about them at TechCrunch. They seem nice enough, but don’t appear to be anything to get that excited about…I will add the link to The Best Sites For Figuring Out What To Do If Delicious Shuts Down.

I’ll still continue to save links to diigo and have them automatically also be saved

Two New Online Drawing Apps

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here are the newest additions to The Best Art Websites For Learning English:

Draw It Live lets you create virtual “rooms” where you can collaborate with people of your choices to draw. It also includes a chat window. You can save the image to your desktop, but it doesn’t appear to

This Week’s Collection Of Good School Reform Posts/Articles

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here are two good school reform posts/articles that I’ve read this week:

The Debate over Teacher Merit Pay: A Freakonomics Quorum has some very thoughtful responses. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning Why Teacher Merit Pay Is A Bad Idea.

A strange deference to Gates at Education Nation is by Anthony Cody. He makes great points about Melinda Gates’ appearance today on NBC’s “Education Nation,” including this one:

Melinda Gates begins with the question “How do we know a teacher’s making a difference in a student’s life?”

Now, This Is What I Call Professional Development!

by Larry Ferlazzo

Atul Gawande, one of my favorite feature writers, published an article in The New Yorker today titledPersonal Best: Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you? (miracle of miracles — it doesn’t appear to be behind a paywall!).

In the article, Gawande (who is also a surgeon) discusses how he had felt he had reached a “plateau” in his surgical skill, and looked at other professions which employed “coaches”:

[Coaching] holds that, no matter how well prepared people are in their formative years, few can achieve and

Now, This Is What I Call Professional Development!

by Larry Ferlazzo

Atul Gawande, one of my favorite feature writers, published an article in The New Yorker today titledPersonal Best: Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you? (miracle of miracles — it doesn’t appear to be behind a paywall!).

In the article, Gawande (who is also a surgeon) discusses how he had felt he had reached a “plateau” in his surgical skill, and looked at other professions which employed “coaches”:

[Coaching] holds that, no matter how well prepared people are in their formative years, few can achieve and

Here Are Three More Nice Additions To The Best Sites For ELL’s List

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here are three more additions to The Best Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced English Language Learner Sites:

The most important additions is a site just discovered by Richard Byrne — Pronunciator. It has simple lessons for 60 different languages, and its most important feature is that it allows you to repeat and record what is being taught, and then “grades” your pronunciation. English Central pioneered this kind of capability over two years ago, and the is the first time I’ve seen another web tool try it, too.

Web-ESL has lots of great resources. It links to other sites, but has many of its own exercises, and they are

School Tech Connect: Semi-Annual Technology Post

School Tech Connect: Semi-Annual Technology Post:

Semi-Annual Technology Post

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

In homage to the title of this blog, I will now post my occasional technology post. In a word, wow.

While your district tech team wrestles with the earth-shattering decision over whether kids should write their five-paragraph essay in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, kids could be doing and learning like Sylvia. While you bathe in the warmth of your PLN with self-congratulatory tweets, Sylvia is sharing serious expertise with the world.

Nice writing. Gary probably gets invited to even fewer teacher parties than I do. I myself came to computing late in life, and I'm still really only interested in more of what I would call the consumer end, but I have to admit, this kid with the robotics controller has me hooked. I want to go and build something. As for the ISTE Standards?

NYC Educator: Praying for Alice

NYC Educator: Praying for Alice:

Praying for Alice

by Miss Eyre

A woman I'll call Alice is a school aide at my school. Alice is pretty much one of my favorite people that I work with. Knowing that we teachers are occasionally a teeny bit backed up and sometimes we need things yesterday, Alice can pretty much always make an emergency run to the supply closet for you or escort a sick or wildin' out child to a quiet space. Teachers here have been known to help her elementary-age kids start their homework while Alice finishes running attendance or numbering new textbooks. We love Alice and Alice loves us.

Unfortunately, as many as 800 school aides are facing layoffslater this fall, Alice among them. And unluckily for Alice, she's dealing with health issues in her family from both the previous generation and the next, as both her mother and her son have been hospitalized in the past month. Her ex-

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top AM Posts

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top AM Posts

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top PM Posts

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At a public comment session on the budget facts don’t get in the way of opinions. « Fred Klonsky's blog

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FAIR Event:FAIR New York City EventSeptember 27, 2011MisEducation Nation:Corporate Media and Corporate Education ReformNBC is staging its second annual "Education Nation" summit at the end of September--a series of events and broadcasts bankrolled by the corporate interests and foundations aligned with the so-called "education reform" movement.Corporate media coverage of education policy tends to hew closely to the "reform" agenda: promoting charter schools and vouchers, embracing relentless testing and other "accountability" measures, and attacking teachers' unions for standing in ... more »

Kids In Need Teacher Grant Application Office Depot Accepting Grant Applications for Middle School Teachers

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Kids In Need Teacher Grant Application:Attention Middle School Teachers! The Office Depot® Star Teacher Program in conjunction with the Office Depot® Foundation are proud to be national sponsors of the Kids In Need Teacher Grants program with "Ready, Steady, GO!," a grants initiative especially for middle school teachers being conducted by the Kids In Need Foundation. Grant applications are being accepted online through October 30, 2011. Grants are awarded in amounts from $100 to $500. The Ready, Steady, GO! grant ... more »

State Official: Skepticism Has Always Followed Vaccines - Rosemont, CA Patch

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Cinda issues an invitation. But the party has already taken place. « Fred Klonsky's blog

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Reading, Writing, ‘Rithmetic….and Responsibility | GoingPublic:Reading, Writing, ‘Rithmetic….and Responsibilityby Nancy LettsSometimes when I can’t sleep, I listen to BBC radio. It’s on my local NPR station from 2 am until 5 (I know, crazy huh?). Last week I sat upright listening to a piece about the horrific journey some kids in Zimbabwe make to get a top notch education in Johannesburg. They have to cross a river infested with alligators, find their way through barbed wire at the border of ... more »

Community colleges get $20 million for job training | Thoughts on Public Education

Community colleges get $20 million for job training | Thoughts on Public Education:

Community colleges get $20 million for job training

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Federal program pays for retraining workers in Central Valley

Posted on 9/27/11 • Categorized as Community Colleges, Program innovation, Workforce preparation

By Kathryn Baron

A consortium of community colleges in California’s economically distressed San Joaquin Valley has been tapped by the U.S. Department of Labor for the first round of funding in a $2 billion federal program to train laid-off and dislocated workers.

“This initiative is about providing access to training that leads to real jobs,” said U.S. Labor Secretary and former California Congresswoman Hilda Solis.

Solis and U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter, former Chancellor of California’s Foothill-De Anza Community College District, announced winners of the competitive grant