NJ Education Report

The Hunterdon County Democrat (Star-Ledger) reports on how some of NJ’s smallest districts are finding sustainability through the state’s Interdistrict Public School Choice Program.  Stockton Borough’s one elementary school receives 22% of its kids through the program and South Hunterdon Regional High’s enrollment includes 12% of “choice” students. Both schools take advantage of the fact that they’re near Mercer County, which has no choice districts.

NJ Spotlight previews NJ’s newly-designed school report cards, which will be online next month (and include student data based on test scores taken a full year ago).

The Community Education Resource Network (CERN), an alternative program for high school dropouts in Camden, has no money available and is cutting programs.  The Philadelphia Inquirer interviews one mother who had three daughters  at CERN because they were “bullied and assaulted” at Camden High. “Camden charter schools are at capacity enrollment for the year and couldn’t take her daughter.”

The Trenton Times (finding a convergence of attention on participation of athletes with disabilities in school sports programs and concerns about the sustainability of the Katzenbach School for the Deaf in Ewing) profiles Katzenbach’s extensive athletic options.

The Star-Ledger looks at the pros and cons of Advanced Placement courses.

Asbury Park School Board, famous for its nearly $30K total annual cost per pupil, is not renewing  Superintendent Denise Lowe’s contract but will instead hire a search firm to look for a replacement. (Asbury Park Press)

Press of Atlantic City: A former Northfield school teacher has received a $437,500 settlement from the city’s school board to settle her claims that she was demoted in retaliation for an ethics complaint she filed against three board members and the superintendent.

Mary Shaughnessy, the president of the Bloomfield Board of Educatio who also identifies herself as a Save Our Schools-NJ member, lashes out at Ed. Comm. Chris Cerf, whom she accuses of trying to “reshuffle the pot of education money to give more funding to the better-off suburbs and less to at-risk kids.” (The Record)

David Kirp, in today’s NY Times, praises the success of Union City’s public schools, particularly its pre-school emphasis,  and then makes an odd leap of logic: “What makes Union City remarkable is, paradoxically, the absence of pizazz. It hasn’t followed the herd by closing “underperforming” schools or giving the boot to hordes of teachers. No Teach for America recruits toil in its classrooms, and there are no charter schools.”  Um, Union City has plenty of charter schools and no TFA teachers “toil in its classrooms” because TFA’s Greater Newark region doesn’t include Union City. Also Union City is, just like all of NJ districts, subject to the new teacher evaluation and reform legislation starting in September.