NJ Education Report

At a town hall meeting at Raritan Community College, Gov. Christie dialed up the rhetoric against NJ’s teacher union leadership:

As he runs for reelection, Christie has tempered his temper. He even screened before the NJEA, though his Democratic challenger Sen. Barbara Buono of Middlesex, walked away with the endorsement. The goodwill didn’t last long.

“I recognize that unions are made up of members,” he said, his voice rising. “But there is an extraordinary divide in my experience between the majority of members and the leadership of unions.”

The Star-Ledger explores perceived weaknesses in NJ’s new School Performance Reports. This  editorial in the Herald News notes some improvements over the old School Report Cards, but adds, “releasing numbers that in some cases were incomplete or inaccurate is highly upsetting.”

A science teacher at Mendham High School says that “looking at all the problems associated with using standardized test scores to rate teachers, it’s clear the proposed regulations are misguided and would be terribly harmful to students and teachers in our public schools.”

From NJ Spotlight: “There were plenty of questions but little outright opposition as Gov. Christie’s proposed school-vouchers program got its first public airing yesterday.

From the Star-Ledger: “About 1,000 students from a half-dozen Newark high schools walked out of class today and gathered on Rutgers-Newark campus to protest deep cuts to the district’s budget…Late last month, Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson said the district faces a $57 million deficit due, in part, to a growing number of students who attend charter schools.” Also see coverage from NJ Spotlight.

John Mooney at NJ Spotlight “reads between the lines” of Gov. Christie’s education budget.

The Asbury Park Press reports that perennially troubled Lakewood School District “could lose millions in state aid if auditors scrutinizing the district’s finances find school officials have not resolved longstanding record-keeping problems.”

The Star-Ledger Editorial Board considers a new study from America Achieves that shows that American kids lag badly behind international peers. But “[t]he second big finding is that poverty is not destiny, that success is possible even in the poorest neighborhoods. The study examined 105 high schools in America, including North Star Academy, a charter school that serves mostly African-American students in Newark.”

Talking Points Memo headline: “Great Moments in Pedagogy Fail.” That’s in regards to an Albany, NY high school teacher who gave his students the assignment to write a persuasive essay proving that Jews are evil and responsible for all of Nazi Germany’s problems. Also see NY Times coverage. (Story was first reported in the Albany Times Union.)