Archives for category: New Jersey
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New Jersey: Selling Atlantic City to the Highest Bidder and the Most Politically Connected

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2016 //
8

This post is not directly connected to education, but it says something about the connection between politics and high finance and the selling off of public assets. Think education.

 

This comes from the website of “In the Public Interest,” an anti-privatization organization.

 

New Jersey: The plan by Gov. Christie, Senate President Steve Sweeney, and South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross III to sell off Atlantic City’s public assets and bust union contracts advances to the next step. “Assembly sources pointed to Atlantic City’s beachfront property as the real prize. Joseph Jignoli and Jack Morris, two politically connected developers with ties to Sweeney by way of public-private developer Devco’s work in Cherry Hill and New Brunswick, could be first in line as plots of land on the coast fall into the state’s hands.”

 

“Sweeney has repeatedly insisted that he favors monetizing the city’s water by handing the authority over to Atlantic County to cut costs. Phillip Norcross, another brother of George Norcross, is a lobbyist with New Jersey American Water, the company most likely to purchase the authority under a state takeover.”

Categories Accountability, For-Profit, New Jersey

New Jersey Charter Grandparent: “This Dance Is Over”

By dianeravitch
April 21, 2016 //
14

This post appeared on EduShyster’s blog. It was written by the grandmother of a student enrolled in the North Star Charter School in Newark, New Jersey.

 

The child’s mother decided that the child should not take the state tests. That’s when the trouble began.

 

Her mother read about PARCC testing and decided that she didn’t want to put the child through that. She gets anxious over tests and she has nightmares after testing. From everything we’ve been following about PARCC in the news reports, these tests aren’t well designed, they don’t indicate much about the children’s progress and they’re being used to rate and assess the teachers and the schools. These tests also aren’t mandatory. Our question has always been: *What’s the benefit for the child?* We didn’t see any. She’s on her fourth school in three years and was just settling down and starting to get her grades together, and we’re not going to disrupt that for a week of testing that serves no clear purpose.

 

Our question has always been: *What’s the benefit for the child?* We didn’t see any.

 

At the end of February, her mother sent a letter to North Star letting them know that she was opting not to have the child take the test. That started such harassment! North Star would call and call and call. Sometimes they would call two and three times a day. They wanted us to change our minds about the child taking the PARCC test. They would tell us that she’s going to have to take standardized tests in high school and taking the test now would help her learn how to take these tests. They also argued that by not taking the test the child was letting down the North Star community, and that this was part of the responsibility to the school community that her mother agreed to when she signed the papers….

 

Testing starts on April 25th. I’m concerned about what North Star is going to do to my granddaughter during that week. I contacted Save Our Schools New Jersey because I wanted to know what happens if we keep my granddaughter out of school. The state says that the school can’t just make the kids sit and stare during the tests. Her brother is at a school for kids with special needs and the school is making all kinds of accommodations for kids who won’t be taking the tests. I also contacted the Charter Schools Association in Trenton and talked to someone who said she’d contact the school and find out what their plans are for kids who aren’t taking the test. When I heard back, I was told that there is no opt out.

 

I don’t trust the school. I have a feeling that if my granddaughter goes to school, they’ll either have her doing nothing or they’ll really push on her. At first our plan was to accompany her to school, to take turns just to keep an eye on things, but her mother has two other kids and I work nights. So we decided to keep her out of school that week. I’ll take her to New York to the museums. If she sits home and plays on the computer that’s OK by me too, as long as she’s not at school being pressured.

 

The child has taken up the cause. At first she was just relieved not to have to take the test. Now she’s in the fight with us. She’s all activist-minded at this point. When we asked her how she felt about telling her story to the newspaper, she said: “Absolutely. What if there are other kids who are being pushed around and being bullied like this and their parents don’t know how to stand up for them?”

Categories Charter Schools, New Jersey, Opt Out, Testing

Sorry, New Jersey! PARCC Testing Resumes

By dianeravitch
April 21, 2016 //
3

Glitches fixed, PARCC testing in New Jersey resumes. http://www.app.com/story/news/education/in-our-schools/2016/04/20/parcc-testing-canceled/83272548/

The best antidote to this travesty is to refuse to take the test. Teachers should write their own tests to test what they taught.

Categories Common Core, Discipline, Education Reform, New Jersey, Opt Out, Standardized Testing

NEWSFLASH: PARCC Tests Cancelled Statewide in New Jersey Due to Computer Breakdowns!

By dianeravitch
April 20, 2016 //
32

PARCC testing across the state of New Jersey was canceled due to a computer glitch. The state education commissioner said he was not responsible for the problem. He blamed it for Pearson. Actually, he is responsible for the problem. He made the decision to stick with PARCC, even those most of the original 24 states who signed on have abandoned PARCC. At last count, only six states and D.C. still use PARCC. Shame on the commissioner for ducking responsibility for a massive fail! Who will hold him accountable? How much instructional time will be wasted giving the tests twice?

 

 

New Jersey schools were forced to postpone PARCC testing in grades 3 through 11 Wednesday morning because of a technical error that prevented students from logging on to the computerized exams, state Education Commissioner David Hespe said.

 

The problem is with the testing platform provided by Pearson, the company that creates the exams, called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests, Hespe said.

 

Hespe called the technical error “totally unacceptable” but did not provide specific details of what went wrong.

 

“This is not a problem on our end,” Hespe said. “This is a problem on Pearson’s end.”

 

 

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Education Industry, New Jersey, Testing

Julie Borst: NJ Administrators Abusing Students Who Opt Out

By dianeravitch
April 14, 2016 //
12

Julie Borst, a parent in New Jersey, reports that New Jersey administrators are going to absurd lengths to compel students to take the PARCC tests, no matter what their parents want. Why do the administrators engage in dictatorial and abusive actions to force these pointless tests on children? Why is their need so urgent? The tests provide no useful information to help children. They have no educational value. Their only function is to rate students and compare them to other students their age.

Borst says flat out: No. It is my child, not yours and not the state’s.

She writes:

 

 

“I’ve been watching in horror as the PARCC testing “season” began in New Jersey last week. I am unabashedly in the Opt Out corner. Oh, sorry, forgot, this is New Jersey, where we play word games. “Refuse” was the word of choice last year, as opting out is not “allowed.” This year “refusing” is getting kicked back to parents too. NJDOE has been in full spin mode for several months and we know the districts with the highest refusals rates from last year have caught an earful.

 

“First, though, let’s be crystal clear about something. When a parent opts out /refuses /insert your choice of it’s-never-going-to-happen here, they are NOT asking for anyone’s permission. They are very simply informing you of what they are choosing for their child. You are expected to respect that decision. End of story.

 

“Parents aren’t opting out because the test is hard. Amazingly, that insipid thought is still floating around and a “news” source published it (I refuse to link to the NYPost. Go Google that hot mess of “journalism” if you must.). They. We. I. Am doing it because public education has become a marketplace for the next best shiny, never-been-tested, device, curriculum, test, insert latest crap your local board of ed got suckered into buying…Chromebooks anyone? None of which has anything to do with educating our children.

 

“Leading up to the testing window, there were stories of stupid stuff…reward parties, bids for prom, getting out of taking the English final exam, the cheer on PARCC videos…demonstrating the level of desperate these people have sunk.

 

“Once the testing started, truly awful stories started pouring in, and continue to this week, about how districts were handling students whose parents refused PARCC. You really have to wonder what is going on inside the heads of these teachers, principals, superintendents, and county superintendents.

 

“I wonder if they have thought about the real damage done to the trust that any really good school must have with its students and parents. Listen carefully, hurting children is not going to get you that trust. You’re going to lose it immediately, and there will be nothing you can do to get it back.”

 

She then tells stories about how children were treated by administrators who decided they should be punished for opting out and sought to make them as uncomfortable as possible.

 

This will embolden parents to opt out in greater numbers next year.

Categories New Jersey, Opt Out, Parents, Testing

New Jersey: Rally Tomorrow to Protest PARCC as Graduation Test

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2016 //
17

There is an axiom in the field of educational testing that tests should be used only for the purpose for which they were designed. The PARCC test of Common Core was intended to measure the Common Core standards. It was not intended to be a graduation exam. Yet tat is what New Jersey   plans to do. If it follows through, large numbers of students will fail to graduate.

 

Parents plan to demonstrate tomorrow against this bad idea:

 

 

 

NEW JERSEY PARENTS, STUDENTS SPEAK OUT AGAINST HARMFUL TESTING POLICIES

 

 

Parents and students to rally in Trenton to demand that their voices are heard!

 

 

Dissatisfied with how high stakes standardized testing is eclipsing their children’s education, parents all over New Jersey are insisting upon their right to make decisions that impact their child’s education by demanding that their voices be heard and included in educational decision making practices.

 

 

Recent changes to New Jersey’s high school graduation requirements without the revision of legal statute or regulatory change are characteristic of the exclusionary practice we have seen from the New Jersey Department of Education in recent years. The intentional silencing of parents, students, and teachers in this state is proving to be detrimental towards the quality education that New Jersey has previously been known for.

 

Recently, the Education Law Center of New Jersey presented the facts to the Joint Committee on Public Schools surrounding this issue. The change of the high school graduation requirements has endangered the potential graduation of thousands of students. Districts are expending financial and personnel resources to assist these students. But the fact is that these issues are caused by the Department of Education’s direct refusal to recognize that the PARCC test has been a mistake that is proving to be a financial burden to our schools.

 

Highland Park Board of Education President Darcie Cimarusti said, “I will be there to represent the Highland Park Board of Education, the first board in the state to adopt a resolution urging the NJDOE to provide multiple pathways to a high school diploma, including alternatives not based on standardized tests. Our board also urged the state to respect the right of parents to make decisions about the assessment alternatives that are most appropriate for their children.”

 

Parent Tova Felder states “The State Department of Education has not been acting in the best interests of our children. They have pushed a test on us that has never been proven to be valid or reliable, has cost our districts millions of dollars, comes with seemingly endless amounts of data collection, takes an extraordinary amount of time to prepare for and take, and whose results indicate that approximately half of our students are not meeting standards for proficiency. Then they say, “Hey, let’s make this a requirement for graduating!” It’s almost like they want our children to fail. In fact, it feels an awful lot like that.”

 

On Wednesday, April 6th, parents and concerned citizens will be rallying in front of the State Board of Education at 9:30 am before the public session. After the rally, everyone will be attending the meeting to once again demand that their voices be heard.

 

 

Contact: Liz Mulholland, 908-232-6666

Bill Michaelson, 646-506-9922

Categories Education Reform, New Jersey, Resistance, Standardized Testing

The Sinister Madness of “Reform” in Montclair, NJ

By dianeravitch
March 22, 2016 //
22

Montclair, NJ, is a suburb of New York City that has long been known for its excellent public schools. In recent years, however, the town has been shaken by a fight over corporate reform. The battle intensified when the school board hired a Broadie as superintendent.

 

Here is the latest report from the front lines:

 

 

“How far will corporate ed-reformers go to silence those who speak against the corporate takeover of their schools?

 

“That is the question residents of Montclair, NJ are asking themselves after the Monday, March 14, 2016 Montclair Board of Education meeting, where they learned that their former BOE had been “[s]erving subpoenas on public schoolteachers in class. Reading them their Miranda rights on school grounds. Using taxpayers’ money to hire investigators to search school employees’ computers late at night.” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/nyregion/montclair-still-feels-strife-from-a-school-test-posted-online-in-13.html?_r=0

 

 

“And compiling an “enemies list” of 27 parents, teachers, and principals names to be searched by the international security firm Kroll, Associates, including a dissenting Board of Education member, the President and Executive Board Members of the local education association, founding members of the grass roots, pro-public education group Montclair Cares About Schools, and parents who had attended MCAS issues forums or commented on social media. http://baristanet.com/2016/03/montclair-boe-more-allegations-questions-and-an-enemies-list-of-names-from-assessmentgate/
http://baristanet.com/2016/03/montclair-emails-paint-picture-of-clandestine-operations-and-confusion-over-assessment-investigation/

 

 

“These actions all took place under cover of an investigation about district assessments in 2013 locally referred to as “Assessmentgate.” This blog posted about Assessmentgate which was conducted while Superintendent Penny MacCormack, a graduate of the Eli Broad training program, was in charge of the Montclair schools. MacCormack was Superintendent from Nov. 1, 2012 until she abruptly resigned and left the district in the spring of 2015.

 

 

“The Assessmentgate investigation was started after district “quarterly assessments” were seen posted on a scavenger site called Gobookee. MacCormack and her reform controlled BOE maintained that the posting had to have been the result of an insider “leak,” and passed a Nov. 1, 2013 resolution authorizing the BOE to undertake an investigation casting a “wide net” to find the person(s) responsible.

Montclair Public Schools: Under Siege

A Broadie Wreaks Havoc in Montclair, New Jersey

 

 

“Teacher Syreeta Carrington testified at the Monday March 14, 2016 at the Montclair Board of Education meeting, that she was
… the teacher who first alerted the district to the availability of the tests online, [and] read a letter for Casey La Rosa, [a Nationally Board Certified teacher] which described ongoing harassment by the attorney for the BOE during the investigation period, including La Rosa being read her Miranda Rights during a class break and repeated harassing emails and phone calls which resulted in her experiencing panic attacks. [La Rosa subsequently resigned from the district.]
http://baristanet.com/2016/03/montclair-boe-more-allegations-questions-and-an-enemies-list-of-names-from-assessmentgate/

 

 

“The community always maintained that there had been no leak. An internal IT review by Alan Benezra on October 26, 2013, the day after the district learned of the postings, reported that the assessments had not been posted with proper password protection and were probably scraped by the scavenger site.

 

“A Nov. 5 email posted online after the March 14th BOE meeting revealed that District Business Administrator Brian Fleischer concluded that :

 

 

“much like [BOE member] David Cummings indicated, the URLS for those assessments could have been found through a search, and the URLS for the assessments were not themselves password protected. ..It is therefore possible that no one ever hit ‘send’ or otherwise deliberately uploaded our URLs or PDFs to Gobookee, but rather that Gobookee itself found and ’stole’ the assessments through its own search engine.”
http://baristanet.com/2016/03/montclair-emails-paint-picture-of-clandestine-operations-and-confusion-over-assessment-investigation/

 

“In spite of this information, MacCormack and her reform dominated Board stretched out the harassing and intimating investigation while racking up bills for the district to pay.

 

 

“You can watch a tape of the Monday March 14, 2016 Montclair Board of Education Meeting where a long line of teachers and members of the public raise these troubling issues and ask their current sitting BOE to clarify what happened in their district, who was responsible, what the investigation cost, and the extent to which civil liberties and the runnings of their district were disrupted. Community members are also seeking assurances that this type of conduct has ended. http://vp.telvue.com/player?s=montclair.

 

“The underlying emails were posted at a local online news outlet and can be read here http://baristanet.com/2016/03/montclair-boe-more-allegations-questions-and-an-enemies-list-of-names-from-assessmentgate/ and here
http://baristanet.com/2016/03/montclair-emails-paint-picture-of-clandestine-operations-and-confusion-over-assessment-investigation/

 
“None of the public comments at the March 14th BOE meeting or emails can be found in the NYT report of the meeting. The New York Times article does, however, contain extensive quotes from Shelley Lombard, one of the former Montclair BOE members who favored the Assessmentgate investigation. The article does not identify Ms. Lombard as a current representative of Montclair Kids First, a reform organization, represented by Shavar Jeffries, who heads DFER.

 

“The community now knows what the activist parents and educators suspected — that the precious resources of time, money and leadership that should have been dedicated to students, classrooms, paraprofessionals, teachers and professional development were systematically and strategically diverted into spying, surveillance, lawyers, intimidation of educators and the criminalization of dissent — all in the name of the achievement gap! What a clever, and twisted, set of tactics by corporate reformers.

 

 

“Now that these emails have surfaced, will the current “good” Board of education collude and cover up, or will they acknowledge the history of financial and ethical abuse of power in order to help the town heal and move forward?

 

“Will the people of Montclair receive the answers they deserve?

 

 

“Stay tuned.”

Categories Corporate Reform, Education Reform, New Jersey

Chris Christie Promises to Open More Charters

By dianeravitch
March 8, 2016 //
21

Fresh off the campaign trail, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie promised to open more charter schools in Newark. 

 

If Newark Mayor Ras Baraka gets in his way, Christie said, he would run right over him.

 

So much for local control.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, New Jersey, Newark

Hoboken, New Jersey: ACLU And Education Law Center Sue to Block Charter Expansion

By dianeravitch
February 28, 2016 //
7

Hoboken is a town in New Jersey that is one-mile square. The charter industry is opening schools there, draining away white and middle-class students.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Education Law Center have filed a lawsuit to block the further expansion of charter schools.

To read the brief for the Plaintiffs, click here.

I received the following letter explaining the rationale for the lawsuit:

 

 

“Dear Ms. Ravitch,

 

 

As a cogent analyst of the national charter school movement and the insidious harm that that movement has caused our traditional schools, you often write about how communities deserve “strong, well-resourced, equitable public school systems” and that the national charter school movement “increases segregation and inequity”. (*Salon, Monday, Oct. 26, 2015, Our real charter school nightmare: The new war on public schools and teachers – Salon.com)

 

 

You have also included on your blog a post about the segregative affect the Hoboken charter schools are having on the district public schools. Now there is a new chapter to write. The Hoboken Board of Education (HBOE) is suing the New Jersey Department of Education for ignoring its own rules, New Jersey law and, most striking, New Jersey’s Constitution when reviewing a charter school renewal and expansion application. The HBOE, in petition and briefs, has detailed the segregative effect and the financial impact that Hoboken Dual Language Charter School‘s (HoLa) expansion has had and will continue to have on the Hoboken District. A District that serves a majority of the City’s neediest children because of their financial circumstances or special educational needs.

 

Now, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey Foundation and the Education Law Center (ELC) have filed an amici brief in support of Hoboken District. They state that “with both New Jersey’s commitment to eradicating segregation and its historical failure to do so in mind, the Commissioner cannot be permitted to ignore the realities that present themselves in Hoboken.” They rightfully fault New Jersey’s DOE for its blatant failure to perform its duties and to ensure our schools, and Hoboken specifically, do not allow school districts separated by socioeconomic and racial classes. Classes often linked in terms of their impact on success in education. The impact is stark when the districts in issue share the same mile square city.

 

 

The ACLU/ELC explain the harm segregation causes all children and the benefits to society of integrated schools. The DOE has that duty and the obligation to stop segregation and those harms so as to encourage quality education outcomes for as many students as possible regardless of race or affluence. That obligation extends to de facto segregation, even if unintentional, which must be struck from our educational landscape. The ACLU/ELC recount the history and current state of segregation in New Jersey’s schools based on economic and minority status and note, notwithstanding New Jersey’s long held policy against racial discrimination, discrimination continues in New Jersey to the point that New Jersey has some of the most economically and racially segregated schools in the country.

 

 

http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/news/press-releases/2013-press-releases/urban-suburban-divide-widens-in-new-jersey-schools-levels-of-racial-isolation-contradicts-state-constitution/?searchterm=new%20jersey

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/05/15/the-most-segregated-schools-may-not-be-in-the-states-youd-expect-2/

 

 

The ACLU/ELC state that: “consistent with not only the law, but also deeply held legal principles that undergird New Jersey’s system of justice, the Commissioner’s decision cannot stand.” They conclude with their request that New Jersey’s Appellate Division Court “reverse the March 20, 2015 decision of the Commissioner of Education granting the requests for the renewal and expansion of the charter of HoLa, unless and until it can be shown that such renewal and expansion will not result in the continuation or exacerbation of school segregation in Hoboken.”

 

 

I encourage your readers to read the ACLU/ELC’s amici brief (attachd pdf) for additional insight as to what happens when a state government refuses to support strong traditional public schools and the fight a District has to undertake to prevent the segregative effect resulting from the State’s failure to do its job.

 

 

I appreciate any and all support you may offer in sharing this story.

 

 

Thank you.

 

 

Theresa Minutillo

 

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, New Jersey, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration

Newark Teachers Union to Charters: Tell the Truth!

By dianeravitch
February 5, 2016 //
2

John Abeigon, president of the Newark Teachers Union, wrote an article calling on the corporate charter chains to come clean about their finances and their practice of skimming the easiest-to-educate students, and to stop boasting about unverified results.

 

Abeigon writes:

 

“The time has come for New Jersey taxpayers to take a close look at corporate-sponsored charter schools in New Jersey. So-called school-choice advocates are pumping millions of dollars into political and advertising campaigns to protect the status quo when it involves the quasi-secret operations of privately managed charter schools in cities like Newark and elsewhere. The strike a wedge between Newark’s parents to draw the attention of taxpayers away from their financial shenanigans.

 

“The Newark Teachers Union has asked for more transparency in the management of corporate-backed charter schools. The Newark Public Schools have two monthly meetings where the school board and superintendent can be held accountable for the actions of their school. When was the last time the citizens of Newark were invited to a KIPP board meeting? What about Uncommon Schools?

 

Also, as these charters have grown, banks and corporations have developed ways, and found alternative credit routes, to provide capital to charter schools at favorable rates. What are these rates? And what are they funding? Have taxpayers and state legislators had an opportunity to review these credit applications?

 

Why are Newark’s corporate-run charters so afraid of transparency and democracy? Are Newark taxpayers allowed to run for election on a North Star Academy school board? Where are their financial statements? Where are their attendance reports? How are they spending taxpayer money? And why must the union be asking these questions?

 

“Second of all, corporate-charter advocates try to make the argument that Newark parents are “voting with their feet” and leaving public schools. But this is very misleading. Strong community schools like Dayton Street School were closed, forcing students from their communities. And still a vast majority of students elected to choose traditional public schools at their first option when they filled out their choices under One Newark.

 

“On top of that, the corporate charter industry throws millions of dollars into advertising their schools and broad claims of undocumented success. When was the last time you saw a billboard or TV commercial advertising your local traditional school? Or the many successful magnet high schools in Newark? There is no true choice here, just a financial tidal wave to push parents towards the corporate charter schools. They burn the village down, and then yell as loudly “This village has failed it’s citizens!”

 

“It is also very misleading when charters tout their successes without providing any evidence beyond their press release. As much as they promise “blind lotteries” are used to select their students, the numbers don’t hold up. Newark’s charter schools somehow manage to end up without the more challenging populations. They have far lower number of special ed, LEP, and poverty students.

 

“And as the charters expand, they continue to cream off select student groups, leaving the traditional schools with a more concentrated population of more challenging and more expensive students to educate — while draining away the very financial resources needed to provide these students with a quality education.

 

In contrast to the charters, the Newark Public Schools take students as they are:

 

“We educate all students, and we are proud of that. No matter what their IEP’s say. No matter what language their parents speak or if their parents are not involved in their lives. No matter if they are homeless or coming to school hungry every morning. That is what a Newark educator does, and shame on corporate-sponsored so-called school-choice advocates for denouncing that work for their financial and professional gain.

”

 

Abeigon concludes that if charters really are doing a good job, as they claim, they should open their doors and their books. They should share the secrets of their success, if it is real. Be transparent and be accountable to the public.

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, New Jersey, Newark
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