This is a guest post by Mark Joseph, a sixth-grade math teacher at KIPP Rise Academy in Newark, where he has taught for ten years. (Warning: Game of Thrones spoilers ahead. But like from Season 6, so no excuses; play like a champion.) There is shot in the penultimate episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones in which Jon Snow is about to battle the army of Ramsay Bolton on the grounds of Winterfell in order to …
[T]here are several states where charters appear to have little or no effect on segregation, such as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, and Oregon. That’s one of the results of a new national study called “Charter School Effects on School Integration” (for a short version, see here) about the impact of charter schools on racial segregation across the country. This data-based analysis, say researchers Tomas Monarrez, Brian Kisida and Matthew M. Chingos, “shows that critics …
I’ve been eagerly anticipating next weekend’s New Jersey Parent Summit, an annual conference organized by the Newark-based non-profit Project Ready. Now I’m even more excited because the organizers announced today that veteran White House correspondent April Ryan, named “Journalist of the Year” by the National Association of Black Journalists in 2017, will be the keynote speaker. She’ll talk about the importance of voting, fighting voter suppression, empowering parents, and organizing urban communities ahead of the …
Look below you’ll see a clip from a June 2015 Lakewood Board of Education meeting. At this meeting, State Fiscal Monitor Michael Azzara announced that, due to pushback from the Mosdos, which represent Lakewood yeshivas, the district will no longer provide courtesy busing to any Lakewood student, public or private. Why? The previous year the Mosdos agreed to a small pilot program that sought to cut transportation costs, which last year ran to about $30 …
This morning I got a call from Lakewood Public Schools attorney Michael Inzelbuch. He asked that I clarify an article in the Asbury Park Press, since corrected, that discusses how a Shared Services agreement between the Township and the district fell apart. The original deal said that the Township would take over the duties of the now-defunct Lakewood Transportation Student Authority (LTSA), which ended the year $3 million in the red despite parents of non-public …
“New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s older brother, Cary Booker, has made headlines recently after New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, hired him for a top education job in the Garden State. That’s the focus of a new Education Week article that details the recent selection by Gov. Phil Murphy, approved by Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet, of Cary Booker to head the Division of Early Childhood Development at a cool $150K per year. “Cary’s commitment …
On Friday I wrote a post that described Lakewood Board of Education’s July 1st meeting when the Board shut down the school district because the State Legislature eliminated Phil Murphy’s $30 million gift to Lakewood. Later that day the Board re-opened the schools upon news that Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet magically found $36 million in the DOE budget to make Lakewood whole. I also printed two emails between myself and Board attorney Michael Inzelbuch because …
3 out of 4 third-graders at Ella Clarke Elementary School don’t meet state expectations for reading. Zero percent of 8th graders at Lakewood Middle School meet state expectations in math. Zero percent of 10th graders at Lakewood High School meet state expectations in reading or algebra. Of the 7 AP courses offered at Lakewood High School, 2.6% of students got a 3 or higher on the end-of-course exam, considered a passing grade. 35% of Lakewood …
Last week Andrew Mulvihill was elected Vice President of the New Jersey State Board of Education, with Kathy Goldenberg as President. He shared with me his remarks upon his election, prefacing them by noting that he is “looking forward to a fresh, new approach to how the board operates. With what limited power we do have I plan on pursuing an agenda that focuses on standards and accountability because that’s what’s best for New Jersey …
On Sunday TapintoNewark ran a piece that describes how over the last ten years “the state agency responsible for building schools in 31 former Abbott districts has spent more than $263 million to build five schools in Newark at a cost that far exceeded the limits set by the Legislature.” This agency is, of course, the scandal-ridden Schools Development Authority which is responsible for building and renovating school buildings in New Jersey’s Abbott districts. In …
