Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Christie, Cerf appear poised to once again try to cut extra funds for low-income students.
In a likely preview of Gov. Chris Christie’s next state budget for public education – and the debates that will surely follow – his administration has put forward a report that proposes increasing some levels of school funding while reducing others. The proposals are part of the long-awaited Educational Adequacy Report submitted to the Legislature, which is required under the state’s 2008 School Funding Reform Act as a way to periodically update the state-aid formula to meet changing education costs. Sent to the Legislature on Friday, the largely technical report by state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf reiterated many of Christie’s long-standing criticisms that additional funding under the state Supreme Court’s landmark Abbott v. Burke …
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Last-in, first-out seniority continues to irk Christie and Cerf, administration issues survey on subject.
For all its celebration of New Jersey’s new teacher tenure law, the Christie administration hasn’t hidden its lament for the one provision it couldn’t change: seniority protection for tenured teachers in the case of layoffs. But it hasn’t given up on building its case. In an unusual request, the state Department of Education last week sent a short survey to every district and charter school asking them about their layoffs of teachers -- technically called “reductions in force” (RIFs) -- over the past five years, and about the impact of seniority protection on their “ability to manage their personnel.” The survey will “help us determine how prevalent RIFs are, who they are affecting, and how they impact retention of effective educators,” …
Monday, September 24, 2012
At the yearly convocation, commissioner and staff review goals and chart progress of state's education initiatives -- one slide at a time
It’s becoming an annual “State of the Schools” address, with the New Jersey's education commissioner and top lieutenants exhaustively outline the administration’s plans and priorities for the coming year. Last week, state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf’s so-called convocation before 400 school administrators gathered at Jackson Liberty High School lasted more than two hours and nearly 80 PowerPoint slides. In the end, the presentation included both the familiar and the new, including a guest appearance of the old topic of early literacy. Yet Cerf was also reminded by those in the audience that even modest plans don't always fall in place as smoothly as a slide show. What did the presentation that tested the endurance of both presenters …
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Assistant commissioner who was to head the RAC effort leaves administration.
The Christie administration last week rolled out the staffing of its new Regional Achievement Centers (RACs) for turning around New Jersey’s toughest schools, at the same time confirming another top education official will be leaving the administration. The additional staffing will be the hiring of six executive directors to head the new RACs that will serve as the department’s satellites for helping the lowest performing schools with training and technical assistance. Their selections have been closely watched. The new directors are mostly a collection of public school leaders from inside the state, all overseeing nearly 100 people who will staff the new centers. Among them are a former assistant superintendent in Newark schools, a former…
Monday, August 13, 2012
Arguments about virtual charters seem to be more about territory than education.
By Laura Waters [Laura Waters has been president of the Lawrence Township School Board in Mercer County for six years. She also blogs about New Jersey education policy and politics at NJLeftBehind.com. A former instructor at SUNY Binghamton in a program that served educationally disadvantaged students from New York's inner cities, she holds a Ph.D. in early American literature from Binghamton.] There’s a ruckus at the New Jersey Department of Education. New Jersey's charter school legislation is 17 years old, dating back to the dawn of the Internet era. It's showing its age. Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf believes he can use DOE-issued regulations to bring the law up to date. But others think he’s arrogantly bypassing the legislative…
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
With legislation to overhaul law going slow -- for now -- BOE will consider plan to expand state’s role with charter schools.
The Christie administration is moving ahead with new regulations for charter schools, jumping ahead of the Legislature and its plans to take up the issue -- and maybe a whole new law -- in the fall. The state Board of Education will hear on Wednesday the latest version of the administration’s proposed regulations that have come under criticism for expanding the size and scope of charters in the state. The proposal had been going before the board last month and was delayed for further review. In that time, the new version released yesterday does make changes that appeared to address some of the criticism. For one, it takes out its main reference to online charter schools, one of the primary targets of concern. However, the new regulations …
Monday, July 30, 2012
Senate committee strips "acting" from commissioner of education title, full senate approval virtually certain.
The hearing in the Statehouse committee room was ostensibly for the confirmation of Chris Cerf as New Jersey’s education commissioner, a formality at this point for a man who’s been on the job as acting commissioner for more than 18 months. In the end, the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed Cerf by a unanimous vote, releasing the nomination for an all but certain confirmation by the full Senate on Monday. But the committee’s four-hour-long interview yesterday was also part of the continuing power play by the Legislature to show its relevance in what has become an increasingly aggressive education agenda under Gov. Chris Christie. Time and again, Senators pressed Cerf to work more closely with the Legislature in crafting its policies, …
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Two charters that blend virtual teaching with traditional classroom education have been approved by state DOE.
They are the online charter schools that haven’t gotten much attention in New Jersey, the ones that will blend online tools with in-person teaching. That lack of attention is likely to change soon, however. Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf on Monday cleared the way for two of the so-called hybrid or blended charter schools to open out of Newark next month, offering students a full-day experience in the classroom, along with a heavy dose of online learning. It’s a big distinction from the all-online programs that generated so much debate in the past month, where students would be taking classes out of their homes. The state on Monday postponed the opening of two such virtual schools for at least a year. The founder of the Merit …
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Proposed online charter schools could lead to legal action, NJEA says.
The relationship between the New Jersey Education Association and charter schools has been a checkered one. In the early 1990s, the powerful teachers union fought against the state’s charter school law before ultimately signing on. Since then, it has openly said it supports charters -- and has organized unions in a dozen of them -- while raising protests about some aspects of the alternative schools. Now, the union is again mixing it up, as the Christie administration announced the latest round of final charters for schools opening this fall, including possibly New Jersey’s first all-online schools. Last week, the union led a group of eight prominent education organizations in urging acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf to not give …
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
NJ Department of Education rejects request from Princeton International Academy Charter School for a third extension year, while granting final approval to Thomas Edison Energy Charter School.
One charter school serving local students was approved to open in September, while another was denied an additional year to find a location. After being granted a planning year extension twice in the last two years, the Princeton International Academy Charter School (PIACS) may have reached the end of the road. On Monday, the New Jersey Department of Education denied a request from the charter school for a third planning year. PIACS was rejected, along with 10 other charter schools, "because they failed to demonstrate sufficient progress towards readiness," according to the DOE. Another 9 charter schools were approved by the DOE to open in September, including the Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter School (TEESCS), which was granted a …
Bob Davidoff
2:20 pm on Friday, November 30, 2012
anyone realize yet that in these other countries that are beating us in math and science the kids dont all get an education? In china many poor and lower functioning children go to work not to school.. Comparing US schools to other countries is simply a ploy for the GOP and our lovely governor to demonize and teachers and privitize everything. Our schools are not failing. more ›