Archives for category: New Jersey
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How Chris Christie Is Promoting Segregation and White Flight in Hoboken

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2014 //
2

By now, there is a sizable literature about the connection between “choice” and segregation. We should never forget that choice was the favorite school policy of George Wallace and other segregationists.

Hoboken, New Jersey, is Governor Chris Christie’s little Petri dish for segregated schools. The best way to keep gentrification going is to kep expanding charter schools, so that young white families don’t have to patronize public schools. Those public schools are for poor black and brown kids.

Read Salon’s interview with the president of the embattled Hoboken public schools.

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

Study: Newark Plan Will Have Disparate Impact on Black Teachers

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2014 //
14

Bruce Baker, Mark Weber, and Joseph Oluwole completed another study of Cami Anderson’s “One Newark,” which will hand over about one-third of Newark’s public schools to private charter operators. This will result in the layoff of hundreds of teachers. Because the lowest performing schools are largely racially segregated, and because most of their teachers are black, the authors predict that “One Newark” will lead to a disparate impact on black teachers. The outcome: a significant whitening of the teacher force in Newark.

They write:

“This brief adds a new consideration to the shift from traditional public schools to charters: if the CMOs maintain their current teaching corps’ profile in an expansion, Newark’s teachers are likely to become more white and less experienced overall. Given the importance of teacher experience, particular in the first few years of work, Newark’s students would likely face a decline in teacher quality as more students enroll in charters.

“The potential change in the racial composition of the Newark teaching corps under One Newark – to a staff that has a smaller proportion of teachers of color – would occur within a historical context of established patterns of discrimination against black teachers. “Choice” plans in education have previously been found to disproportionately impact the employment of black teachers; One Newark continues in this tradition. NPS may be vulnerable to a disparate impact legal challenge on the grounds that black teachers will disproportionately face employment consequences under a plan that arbitrarily targets their schools.”

Categories New Jersey, Teachers

Jersey Jazzman: Star-Ledger in NJ Compliments Charter with Very Few Poor Kids

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2014 //
8

Jersey Jazzman calls out New Jersey’s leading newspaper for making really surprising comments about a charter school in Hoboken.

The Hola charter school is innovative, and parents are lining up to get their kids in. It gets high test scores, and only 11% of its students are poor in a district where 72% of the kids are poor.

JJ writes:

Let’s recap: there’s a charter school that takes far fewer kids in poverty than the neighboring public schools. It does a “terrific job,” but — and this isn’t me saying this, but the Star-Ledger itself — that’s only because the charter serves so few kids in poverty. So it’s not fair to compare Hola to the public schools — again, even the S-L admits this — because they don’t serve the same children. And every dollar Hola takes away from the Hoboken school district is a dollar that doesn’t go to children who live in poverty — the children who are more expensive to educate than the children who, the S-L acknowledges, go to Hola. Everyone clear on this? OK…

Now, let’s get something straight about what is happening in Hoboken.

It is a tiny district. It has three charter schools. The charter schools serve the white and black middle-class residents of the city, while the public schools are for the poor and non-white.

I think this used to be called racial segregation.

Whatever happened to the Brown vs. Board of Education decision?

Yeah, that was sixty years ago, but is it a dead letter?

Categories Charter Schools, New Jersey, Privatization, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration

Jersey Jazzman: New Jersey’s Teacher Evaluation AKA “Operation Hindenburg”

By dianeravitch
March 12, 2014 //
12

Jersey Jazzman warns that New Jersey’s new teacher evaluation plan is expensive, wasteful, inaccurate, and has no basis in research whatever. Other than that….it stinks.

In short, he calls it Operation Hindenburg, and if you don’t know about the Hindenburg, I suggest you google it. (Watch out, as the data miners will start offering you bargain deals on used blimps.)

New Jersey’s new teacher evaluation system — code name: Operation Hindenburg — is not cheap. Superintendents around the state have been warning us about this for a while: the costs of this inflexible system are going to impose a significant financial burden on districts, making this a wasteful, unfunded mandate.

JJ writes:

But if you don’t believe me, and you don’t believe these superintendents, why not listen to a couple of scholars who have produced definitive proof of the exorbitantly high costs of AchieveNJ:

In 2012, the New Jersey State Legislature passed and the Governor signed into law the Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey (TEACHNJ) Act. This brief examines the following questions about the impact of this law:
• What is the effect of intensifying the teacher evaluation process on the time necessary for administrators to conduct observations in accordance with the new teacher evaluation regulations in New Jersey?
• In what ways do the demands of the new teacher evaluation system impact various types of school districts, and does this impact ameliorate or magnify existing inequities?
We find the following:
On average, the minimum amount of time dedicated solely to classroom observations will increase by over 35%. It is likely that the other time requirements for compliance with the new evaluation system, such as pre- and post-conferences, observation write- ups, and scheduling will increase correspondingly.
The new evaluation system is highly sensitive to existing faculty-to-administrator ratios, and a tremendous range of these ratios exists in New Jersey school districts across all operating types, sizes, and District Factor Groups. There is clear evidence that a greater burden is placed on districts with high faculty-to-administrator ratios by the TEACHNJ observation regulations. There is a weak correlation between per-pupil expenditures and faculty-to-administrator ratios.
The change in administrative workload will increase more in districts with a greater proportion of tenured teachers because of the additional time required for observations of this group under the new law.
The increased burden the TEACHNJ Act imposes on administrators’ time in some districts may compromise their ability to thoroughly and properly evaluate their teachers. In districts where there are not adequate resources to ensure administrators have enough time to conduct evaluations, there is an increased likelihood of substantive due process concerns in personnel decisions such as the denial or termination of tenure. [emphasis mine]

– See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2014/03/nj-pays-high-cost-for-bad-teacher.html#sthash.ytDauLdH.dpuf

 

Categories New Jersey, Teacher Evaluations

Mother Crusader Explains Hoboken: Separate and Unequal

By dianeravitch
March 9, 2014 //
6

Darcie Cimarusti (aka Mother Crusader) dives into the racially charged politics of Hoboken, where charter schools have become a refuge for those who don’t want to go to the public schools, which have an enrollment that is most poor and minority.

While many people think that charters are “saving poor minority kids from failing public schools,” charters in Hoboken are a means of encouraging gentrification by providing a haven for white and affluent families.

Darcie explains the politics behind a decision to expand the dual-language Hola charter school. Mayor Dawn Zimmer–famous for her role in the investigation of whether Governor Christie withheld Sandy relief funds for political reasons–is a charter school parent.
.

Hola had all the right political connections. As it grows, the public schools wither.

The Star-Ledger commended Hola for its high performance, while noting that only 11% of its students are poor.

As Darcie points out,

“HoLa’s Board President is not only a former Wall Street Journal Education Reporter, [and] she is also the “Chief External Officer,” AKA Director of Communications, for Uncommon Schools, one of the states favorite CMOs.”

Categories Charter Schools, New Jersey

Christie Administration Threatens to Suspend Democracy in Newark

By dianeravitch
March 8, 2014 //
29

Frustrated by the appointments made by the mayor who replaced Cory Booker, the Chris Christie administration is now considering a complete takeover of the finances of the city of Newark.

Newark’s schools have been under state control since 1995.

David Giambusso of the Star-Ledger reports:

After a months-long cold war over Newark Mayor Luis Quintana’s hiring practices and his approach to city budgeting, state officials today raised the specter of a takeover of the city’s finances.

Local Government Services director Thomas Neff raised the specter of a state takeover of Newark’s budget.

Thomas Neff, director of the state’s Division of Local Government Services, said in a letter to Quintana that his division, at its meeting on Wednesday would soon begin discussing “the level of financial stress in Newark and Newark’s lack of compliance with certain budget laws.”

However, he said, “the board will not be taking a formal vote with respect to placing Newark under supervision at this meeting,” Neff said.

Almost from the minute Quintana was appointed mayor in November, the city and state budget monitors have had an icy relationship.

The mayor ruffled feathers in Trenton when he went on a hiring spree, firing former Mayor Cory Booker’s department directors and appointing replacements without state approval, violating a memorandum of understanding between the city and state.

Quintana was appointed mayor when Booker was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Neff sent numerous letters indicating the state’s displeasure with Quintana’s actions, but his letter Friday was the most ominous to date.

If a state takeover were to happen, the state would likely have the final say over how Newark allocates its resources, who it hires and fires, and how much it charges in taxes.

This is rich. Trust the Christie administration, not local residents to govern themselves.

Categories New Jersey

Julia Sass Rubin: School Performance Measures Are Poor Measures of School Performance

By dianeravitch
March 3, 2014 //
10

Julia Sass Rubin here analyzes “school report cards” in New Jersey.

This analysis was published last year but is as valid now as it was last May.

Rubin writes:

“Comparing schools to those with similar demographics is a good idea that highlights that students’ personal characteristics play a bigger role in determining their academic outcomes than anything that happens to them in-school. And what could be bad about giving parents and educators more information?

“Unfortunately, rather than providing useful data, the new reports undercut New Jersey’s excellent public schools. The reports also create incentives for districts to manage to the new standards through policies that produce higher rankings but may not meet students’ needs.

“There are four types of problems with the new school reports: artificially created competition, poorly designed comparison groups, arbitrary category definitions, and inaccurate data.”

She then describes the errors inherent in each of these measures. They are as misleading as the A-F report cards, which are often based on the same metrics.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting sick of the unending efforts to find a scale that can quantify children, teachers, schools. I much prefer a complex qualitative report that helps me understands needs and strengths and that leads to improvement, not punishments.

Surly all those statisticians can find something useful to do in industry or agriculture or public health. Big Data has its limits. The more we learn about how it distorts values and degrades education as it should be, the less it is needed to measure children and the quality of learning.

Categories Data and Data Mining, New Jersey

Why Are Hoboken’s Schools Segregated?

By dianeravitch
March 3, 2014 //
34

Theresa Minitullo, a passionate advocate for Hoboken public schools, is dismayed that the city has separate and unequal school systems, all publicly funded.

The overwhelming majority of poor kids go to the public schools.

The white kids and non-poor kids go to the charter schools.

There is a reason: the charters help gentrify Hoboken, assuring young professional tat their kids can get a free public education without saving to go to school with ” those kids.”

But what happened to the Brown decision? Remember? 1954?

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

Newark Plans to Lay Off More than 1,000 Teachers

By dianeravitch
March 1, 2014 //
34

Teachers, students, and parents protested the decision by Superintendent Cami Anderson to lay off about a third of the teachers in Newark, NJ, more than 1,000.

Anderson plans to close many public schools and replace them with charter schools.

Anderson did not attend the meeting of the elected advisory board –and has announced that she will no longer attend such meetings–because she did not like the tone of the last meeting, where residents vented their rage against her and her plan for greater privatization.

Newark has been under state control since 1995. Anderson was appointed by the Chris Christie administration, which favors privatization.

Categories New Jersey, Students, Teacher Tenure, Teachers

The Mayoral Race in Newark: How to Fix Education is a Central Issue

By dianeravitch
February 27, 2014 //
15

The race for mayor of Newark, New Jersey, has narrowed to two candidates: Ras Baraka and Shavar Jeffries. It has become a referendum on the direction of school reform and whether Newark’s public schools will be turned over to private charter organizations.

Baraka, a city councilman and high school principal, has received the endorsement of the Network for Public Education, based. On his support for research-based methods of school improvement and his commitment to democratically controlled public schools (Newark has been under state control since 1995). Jeffries is a strong supporter of the continued privatization of schools in Newark, which coincides with the plans of Chris Christie’s administration.

This article by Josh Eidelson in Salon contains an informative interview with Baraka.

It is interesting that the editor of the “Star-Ledger” says in the article that Baraka has no new ideas; he just wants to fix the public schools, not blow them up. This is the same editor who admitted that his newspaper had erred in endorsing Christie’s re-election. If he read research about charters in New Jersey, which demonstrates their success in culling the students they want and excluding the ones they don’t want. He should invite Bruce Baker of Rutgers to meet the editorial board.

The election this fall will determine whether public education will survive in Newark or whether the children will become part of the national experiment in privatization of public schools..

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, New Jersey
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