The State Commission for Public Schools had harsh words for Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson, while the State Board of Education was uniformly pleased at the performance of Paterson Superintendent Donnie Evans.
Afterwards, one particularly brave (and contextually well-informed) member of the Newark School Advisory Board, president Rashon Hassan, was not as quick to jump on the anti-Cami bandwagon. He told the Star-Ledger that,
“Anderson’s meeting before the joint committee on public schools was a step in the right direction. He said now it’s time to focus on finding solutions to fix an ailing school system.
“The issues we face as a school district, I don’t think they are Cami Anderson specific,” he said.
NJ Spotlight: a “small crowd descended on the State Board of Education’s monthly meeting yesterday. They came from a variety of places, but they had a common cause: protesting the state’s new regimen of student testing.”
On Thursday the State DOE released the data that will be used to gauge classroom efficiency. From the Star-Ledger: “About 16,500 teachers [about 15% of NJ’s teaching pool] had their 2013-14 evaluations based 30 percent on student progress on standardized tests, according to the Department of Education. That change applied to most math and language arts teachers in grades 4-8 who administered the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge standardized test.” Also see NJ Spotlight
“NJ Spotlight founder and education writer John Mooney told NJTV News Anchor Mary Alice Williams there may be a chance that schools will receive additional aid in the state budget, but it won’t be much of an increase.” Here, John looks at some of the looming educational issues in 2015, including PARCC, school funding, teacher evaluations, and takeover districts
Senate President Steve Sweeney says that Atlantic City Public Schools should get more state aid.
Lakewood Update, courtesy of the Asbury Park Press: “The state Attorney General’s Office is the latest to subpoena documents from Lakewood, seeking financial records dating back to 2009 tied to its home instruction program… Officials with the state Attorney General’s Office will not feel lonely as they comb through the documents – the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the state Comptroller’s Office’s Medicaid Fraud Division have both been digging through the district’s crates in recent months…Last spring, state auditors found that Lakewood could not justify more than $3.9 million of $8,859,613 in federal funding that passed through its coffers during the 2011-12 school year.The auditors also found the school district misrepresented its student population during the same year, pocketing $2.4 million in state funds that it should not have.”
A group of Montclair teachers who call themselves “Montclair 250” are appearing at Board meetings to protest the school board’s narrowing of the curriculum and an overemphasis on testing. The group leaders say the protests have nothing to do with the district’s current contract negotiations. (The Record)
From the Star-Ledger: “In unusually forceful language, the state school ethics board castigated the Perth Amboy Board of Education for voting on a [$184,000] severance package with the former schools chief at 1 a.m. while one board member stood to personally benefit.”
Christie’s State of the State is on Tuesday. Here’s a good preview from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
