Friday, January 14, 2011

NJ Governor Chris Christie's ed reforms are futile without reformed parents (TRENTONIAN EDITORIAL) - trentonian.com

NJ Governor Chris Christie's ed reforms are futile without reformed parents (TRENTONIAN EDITORIAL)

Published: Thursday, January 13, 2011

Gov. Christie’s educational alliance with Bret Schundler seemed to hold great promise for reform efforts to boost the effectiveness of public schools while restraining their treasury-plundering costs. Schundler’s personal involvement in the charter-school movement and his energy and enthusiasm looked like just what was needed in a new state education commissioner.

Alas, the former Jersey City mayor upon assuming the education commissioner’s post fumbled a federal grant application — a costly turnover just as the governor was cutting back state aid to public schools. Amid recriminations between the two, the Christie-Schundler education partnership collapsed.

Now the governor has struck up a new alliance with celebrity education reformer Michelle Rhee, former head of the D.C. public schools. She has a new gig, a reform advocacy outfit dubbed

NJ Spotlight | Opinion: NJ's 'Fatally Flawed' Merit Pay Program

Opinion: NJ's 'Fatally Flawed' Merit Pay Program
Our problem in New Jersey is not the lack of a merit system. Our problem is how we’ve chosen to measure merit.

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By Laura Waters, January 14 in Opinion |Post a Comment

In Tuesday’s State of the State speech, Governor Chris Christie declared education reform his highest priority.

"The time for a national conversation on tenure is long past due," Christie asserted. "I propose that we reward the best teachers, based on merit at the individual teacher level.… I am committed to improving the measurement and evaluation of teachers."

Been there, done that, Guv.

New Jersey has had a merit pay system for teachers for years. True, leaders of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) deny it exists. President Barbara Keshishian said recently that any merit pay proposal is "fatally flawed." That's just semantics. Our problem in NJ is not the lack of a merit system. The problem is how

Supreme Court Remands Abbott v. Burke to Lower Court for Fact Finding
Justice's order appears to put burden of proof on Christie administration

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By John Mooney, January 14 in Education |Post a Comment

In the Assembly chamber of the Statehouse on Tuesday, justices of New Jersey’s Supreme Court listened as Gov. Chris Christie in his State of the State address made a not-so-subtle jab at the Abbott v. Burke school funding case.

“We must end the myth that more money equals better achievement,” Christie said. “It is a failed legal theory, and we can no longer waste our children’s time or the public’s money waiting for it to work.”

Two days later, the justices answered back: "Not so fast."

The court yesterday ordered the latest Abbott challenge to Christie’s $1.1 billion in school aid cuts be remanded to a lower court for fact-finding hearings. The justices are

N.J. Supreme Court orders state to prove Christie's funding formula is sufficient | NJ.com

N.J. Supreme Court orders state to prove Christie's funding formula is sufficient

by Star-Ledger Staff

'Special master' will hold further hearings and report by end of March on constitutionality of the current funding levels

N.J. superintendents group sues to block Gov. Christie's planned salary cap

by The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk

Vic Yepello/The Star-LedgerParsippany superintendent LeRoy Seitz, who Gov. Chris Christie called the "new poster boy for all that’s wrong with the public school system that is being dictated by greed." A group representing 600 superintendents has sued the state to...

N.J. superintendents group sues to block Gov. Christie's planned salary cap

by The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk

Charters schools' windfall is public kids' loss as state has city on hook for $32 million

JUAN GONZALEZ - NEWS

Friday, January 14th 2011, 4:00 AM

He for News

Public school kids are the ones who suffer in charter school snafu.

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New York City's charter schools are getting a windfall increase of 9% in funding this year, even as city public schools are forced to cope with cuts of more than 4%.

The unexpected hike for charters - from $12,443 a child to $13,527 - is the result of a legislative screw-up that Albany lawmakers failed to address before they went out of session last month.

The hike affects the entire state. That means urban districts, where most charters are located, are being forced to redirect scarce dollars they had earmarked for traditional public schools.

The city's Department of Education, for example, will need to shift more than $32

The Answer Sheet - What reformers are doing to urban kids (or 'it's terrible what they are doing to these schools')

What reformers are doing to urban kids (or 'it's terrible what they are doing to these schools')

This was written by Natalie Hopkinson, a fellow of the Interactivity Foundation and a contributing editor to The Root, a daily online magazine devoted to the black experience. She is co-author of he co-author of "Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation." This post first appeared on The Root. By: Natalie Hopkinson Something wasn't right at the high school that Darwin Bridgers' son attends, so he sat in on the class to see for himself. All morning long, the instructor at the Washington, D.C., charter school pointed to a list of ground rules, a detailed list of rewards and punishments posted on a wall near the front of the class filled with black and Latino students. Then the students filled out worksheets. That's how it went: rewards and punishments, then worksheets. No instruction, just worksheets. At the end of the class, Bridgers, who works as

Math class: What’s the right order?

In what order should students take math? Should Geometry come before or after Algebra 2? Here are some of the ways schools are working through the issue. Below are responses school counselors around the country to a request for information about the order that high school students take math classes. The query was issued by Jean Crowder, director of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program at Sacramento State University and University of California at Davis. The responses were sent to her via the e-list of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. She gave me permission to publish the responses (keeping them anonymous), which I found revealing about how schools experiment with math. The original query to counselors from Crowder: "I am working with a local high school site that is considering altering the enrollment/completion order for mathematics for students. This possible new completion order would be as follows:

Kirst: Critics of State Board are off-base | Thoughts on Public Education

Kirst: Critics of State Board are off-base - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

State Board of Education President Michael Kirst says he and his new colleagues on the Board already have gotten a bad rap. According to Kirst, defenders of the seven Board members whom Gov. Jerry Brown didn’t reappoint have dismissed new members as opponents of education reform and ready to launch a “war on charter schools.” [...]

Original video source (sbegov20110113.asx)

2:20 AM (2 hours ago)

Michael Kirst on his and State Board of Education’s priorities and vision for reform - by admin

by admin

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Friday, January 14, 2011