NJEA Blog

Measuring student progress and teacher effectiveness post-Sandy

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:54:00 -0400

by Carrie Meyer, Teacher, Bay Head School

The State of NJ measures the effectiveness and overall “success” of a teacher based, in large part, on his/her students’ scores on the NJASK. During the week of May 6-13, as I administer the NJASK while also celebrating “Teacher Appreciation Week”, I wanted to share my thoughts and professional observations on the success level of Bay Head School students and teachers.

This school year has presented challenges that could not ever have been predicted on an academic, sociological, emotional, or economic scale. Hurricane Sandy changed the lives of every individual student in my classroom and in all of my colleagues’ classrooms. The objectives of our daily lessons remained the same, but often took on secondary importance to the physical safety and emotional stability of the students under our care.

I am proud to say that Bay Head School was recognized as a “Reward School” for being a “high performing” school based on its 2012 NJASK scores. It’s nice to see statistics positively support the long-standing cooperative effort of involved, caring parents, hard-working, responsible students, and well-trained, dedicated teachers. When Assemblyman David Wolfe came to congratulate the students and staff personally on this state-recognized measurement of academic success, he toured our damaged physical structure.

Any politician visiting our school could not fully see our school’s progress without meeting the students and teachers who, having been battered just as hard as the building, remain focused on their objective: to grow and improve and learn from whatever life throws at them while also mastering academic concepts and skills deemed grade-level appropriate.

Anyone who does not spend time in the classrooms might not see students who, 6 months after the storm, are not living in their homes but are still coming to school with their homework complete and a positive attitude.

Someone not inside the school walls daily might not see interactions between students who have translated heartache and unfairness into compassion and humility, might not hear teachers’ descriptions of what the school feels like, sounds like, and smells like with no heat and no electricity.

Those who don’t spend time in our classrooms might not wrestle with the constant dichotomy we teachers face, one that has multiplied exponentially since Sandy: Do you correct the run-on sentences of a student who has finally written about the most traumatic events of his young life? Do you interrupt the girl telling her family’s midnight escape story for the twelfth time so that you can get to your planned lesson on verb tenses?

"The beautiful human-ness of these students, their families, and their teachers cannot be measured by a standardized test, and yet is so very worthy of “reward status.” No government proclamation, no scheduled visit, no appreciation week, no single test score can capture that adequately."

All of this sounds dramatic, maybe. But a reader doubting its veracity just emphasizes its awesomeness. It truly has been an unbelievable, unprecedented time to be a member of our school community. And despite this/because of this, the students of Bay Head School have been learning, growing, and improving immeasurably.

The students, the families, and the staff have dealt with an increased workload and have managed and thrived with decreased resources in an often-challenging physical and emotional environment.

But we have been exposed to generosity beyond measure, and kindness and caring beyond reason from so many people- both near and far, old and new. We’ve stayed focused on our goals, and we’ve shared experiences that will forever bond us. Our NJASK scores should once again reflect this, and might even earn the school another visit from an Assemblyman for “high performance.” If that is the case, I hope the next round of accolades or next visit will focus on all facets of our success and amazing achievements, and not focus on the physical walls surrounding us that haven’t rebounded as quickly as we have.

Since it is Teacher Appreciation Week, I would be remiss to not thank my colleagues and co-workers for the support they’ve shown during this time. We often work, like many people in our hard working community, 10-12 hour work days. We lost our faculty room, our coffeemaker, our communal space. Since our building’s re-opening in mid-December, we have been sharing one microwave between roughly 25 people, most of whom have only 20 minutes to wait in line to heat and eat lunch. We arrange coverage for our classes in order to use a teachers-only bathroom that, although compromised, is cozily illuminated by sparkling holiday lights, courtesy of our uber-caring custodian. Our holidays, vacations, and weekends are often not work-free days, but rather days during which we are fortunate to be able to work from home.

And despite these (perhaps petty) complaints, the positives truly outweigh the negatives because of what we have learned from seeing the resiliency and the genius in our students. The beautiful human-ness of these students, their families, and their teachers cannot be measured by a standardized test, and yet is so very worthy of “reward status.” No government proclamation, no scheduled visit, no appreciation week, no single test score can capture that adequately.

“Life is a journey, not a destination.” For some, NJASK results and Teacher Appreciation Week might be the “destination” in the famous adage. The BHS teachers, staff, and students have learned first-hand that life is indeed about the journey. And what a rewarding journey it is.

Congratulations to the students on a job well done, and Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Those misleading new School Performance Reports

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:08:00 -0400

Confusing. Inaccurate. Mixed bag. Proceed with caution.

These are just some of the terms being used to describe the state’s new School Performance Reports, which were released earlier this month.

Department of Education (DOE) officials had hoped these reports would “provide a more complete picture of school performance” and “help schools and stakeholders engage in local goal setting and improvement.” Instead they seem to be baffling parents and frustrating district officials who are trying to explain their report to anxious community members. The new performance reports are so complicated, the department also released a 13-page Interpretive Guide and a 16-page white paper to explain the state’s peer group methodology.

The School Performance Reports, formerly known as School Report Cards, were redesigned in large part to meet the requirements of the state’s waiver of certain provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) granted by the federal authorities. Unfortunately, in making these changes, the department sacrificed simplicity and readability and has failed to meet the needs of parents and children.

Two aspects of the new reports are particularly controversial: the introduction of a new peer group methodology and the use of percentile ranks within those peer groups.

In the past, districts, not schools, were placed into eight groups based on the socioeconomic conditions of the communities they served. Now, the DOE has employed "Propensity Score Matching," which creates a list of "peers" for each school in New Jersey, grouping them together based on shared demographic characteristics, namely student poverty, limited English proficiency, and special education classification. This could mean, however, that schools from opposite ends of the state—or even different grade levels—fall into the same peer group, giving parents little basis for comparison.

Even more problematic is the use of percentile ranks. Each report identifies a school's position relative to other schools using a scale from zero to 99, representing the percentage of "peer schools" that school is outperforming. But percentile ranks are a zero-sum game and can be very deceiving. A high-performing school can be labeled as “lagging” or even “significantly lagging” simply because it is being compared to other high-performing schools. Similarly, a struggling school may look like it’s doing just fine—because it is being compared to other struggling schools.

There are a number of other problems with the reports, such as the absence of information that is required by law. But the more troubling issue is why the Department of Education would choose to analyze the data in such a way that renders it at best, not very useful, and at worst, misleading.

The student growth conundrum Part II

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:39:00 -0400

Advocates of using student growth data to evaluate teachers all face the same obstacle: how to measure student achievement when standardized test results aren’t available. In the N.J. Department of Education’s (NJDOE) proposed evaluation system, more than 80 percent of teachers fall into this category. That’s why the department has called for the use of Student Growth Objectives. These objectives, called SGOs for short, may sound harmless, but teachers and administrators will again find measuring student growth accurately is anything but easy.

The NJDOE defines SGOs as “academic goals for groups of students that each teacher sets with his or her principal or supervisor at the start of the year.” These SGOs should be “ambitious but achievable” and can be based on “national standardized tests; statewide assessments; or locally-developed measures such as tests, portfolios, etc.”

The department’s first two examples are more of the same: tests. Given the shortage of time and the abundance of paperwork related to teacher evaluation, the temptation to use a ready-made assessment will be great. Our students will suffer the consequences as they endure more standardized testing than ever before. Meanwhile, local boards of education will see more money spent to buy these tests than ever before.

Even if educators choose to create their own tests for SGO purposes, there are other things to worry about. Sure teachers make up tests all the time, but as noted researcher Dr. Howard Wainer explains, those tests usually have two purposes: to push the students into studying and to see if the course of future instruction needs to be adjusted.

“But when you add a further purpose – the formal evaluation of the teacher and the principal – the test score must carry a much heavier load,” says Wainer, author of Uneducated Guesses—Using Evidence to Uncover Misguided Education Policies (Princeton University Press, 2011). “Even professionally developed tests cannot support this load without extensive pre-testing and revision,” something that takes a lot of time and a lot of money.

That leaves portfolios, another idea that Wainer believes “only sounds good if you say it fast.”

“When portfolios were used as part of a statewide testing program in Vermont about 15 years, ago it was a colossal failure,” he recalls. “It was unreliable, unpredictable and fantastically expensive,” and soon, state officials abandoned the program.

What is the lesson to be learned? “Some measurement methods that work acceptably well at a classroom level do not scale,” explains Wainer. “A folder of a student’s work produced for a parent-teacher conference illustrates what is going on and directs the discussion, but when the folder is reified as a ‘Portfolio Assessment,’ we have asked more from it than it can provide. Research shows that portfolios are well suited for one purpose but not the other. What would make New Jersey’s use different?”

Indeed, nothing will make New Jersey different. There is a mountain of evidence out there that tells us that student growth metrics aren’t ready for prime time when it comes to teacher evaluation. No state has done it well, and given the NJDOE’s current proposal, New Jersey won’t either.

The student growth conundrum, Part I

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:40:00 -0400

The state Department of Education released its proposed teacher evaluation regulations in early March. After much review, one thing is clear: the NJDOE has not answered the question of how to measure student growth accurately, and even more important, how to fairly and accurately attribute that growth (or lack of it) to a specific teacher.

NJDOE officials shouldn’t be embarrassed that they were unable to solve this mystery. As some of them have explained, no state has figured this out. And if the regulations pass as currently written, New Jersey won’t either.

The issue of measuring student growth is complex, so we’ll only deal with one part of the problem—student growth percentiles, or SGPs. Under the proposed regulations, SGPs would be calculated for math and language arts teachers in grades 4-8.

How would it work? From a student’s performance from year to year on the NJASK, the state will calculate that student’s percentile rank based on his or her test performance compared to other students across the state who have performed similarly. The individual student is assigned a number by the state known as that student’s growth percentile. The teacher will be assigned a score based upon the median of all of his or her students’ growth percentiles. That score will count as 35 percent of that teacher’s summative rating.

As noted researcher Dr. Howard Wainer notes, this is “one of those ideas that only sound good if you say them fast.” Author of Uneducated Guesses—Using Evidence to Uncover Misguided Education Policies (Princeton University Press, 2011), Wainer notes that dealing with percentiles means it is a zero sum game; if one student goes up it must be counter-balanced by another who goes down.

“Such a system is hardly calculated to build a cooperative learning environment,” Wainer explains. “Moreover, it does not allow us to see overall trends, only comparative ones.”

He likens this exercise to measuring the height of a classroom full of children.

“Some would grow faster than others, and the percentile changes would reveal this, but it would miss the big fact that all are growing. Both aspects – absolute growth and comparative growth – are important, but the focus on just percentile growth diminishes the more important aspect of absolute growth,” says Wainer.

A distinguished research scientist for the National Board of Medical Examiners, Wainer also questions the NJDOE’s assertion that “no educator is ever ‘penalized’ for teaching students at any achievement level” because even “students at the highest end of proficiency can also show growth.”

How can this be true? Common sense tells us that if a student gets a pre-score of 40 percent there is a lot of room to improve. If another gets a pre-score of 95 percent there isn’t. And Wainer believes that the use of percentiles makes things worse.

“Score distributions have lots of people in the middle and they get sparse in the extremes, so a small gain in the middle of the distribution jumps you over a lot of people,” Wainer explains.

“For example, a 10-point gain in the SAT from 790 to 800 jumps over about 4,000 to 5,000 people (out of the 1.5 million who took it) whereas a 10-point gain in the middle of the distribution, from say 500 to 510 jumps over 54,000 other people, so the gain in percentile rank is more than five times greater in the middle than in either tail.”

It’s worth noting that even Colorado, the state that has led the charge toward student growth percentiles, is still not using SGPs to evaluate teachers. The NJDOE should heed the lessons of other states and the expertise of statisticians and find a fairer and more reliable way to incorporate student growth into a teacher’s evaluation.

And that’s how it sounds when you say it slowly.

Up next: the problems of student growth objectives (SGOs)

Judges aren't puppets

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:20:00 -0500

He’s at it again.

In a stunning display of disregard for the principle of an independent judiciary, Gov. Christie lashed out this week at Sen. Sweeney for not laying out the red carpet for his judicial nominees. And the reason he’s so upset? According to Businessweek, “Christie said his two nominees for the state Supreme Court would let him cut spending by changing how education is funded.”

It was a clear reference to the long-established Abbott ruling in New Jersey, which requires the state to live up to its constitutional obligation to provide a thorough and efficient public education to every child. Gov. Christie has made no secret of his disdain for that ruling, which has helped ensure fair treatment for students in New Jersey’s most economically distressed communities.

He has every right as a politician to disagree. But it’s up to the Supreme Court to make the rulings. And Gov. Christie says he needs to get his judges on the court to change the law.

That’s right. Gov. Christie knows how his nominees would vote, before a case even comes before them. Before they hear legal arguments or review the facts.

It might not surprise us, or even bother us as much, to hear about politicians who make up their minds based on ideology or preconceived notions. It’s not good politics, and it might not lead to good outcomes, but it’s not against the rules.

Judges are different. They are supposed to be driven by facts and by the law, whatever case comes before them. They are not supposed to decide ahead of time how they will rule. They certainly aren’t supposed to rule on any matter simply to advance the political objectives of a politician, especially the one who appointed them.

It’s a basic civics lesson the governor apparently still needs to learn, since this is not his first foray into meddling with the judicial branch. Last year, the Star-Ledger outlined his long history of questionable behavior, noting that “Christie’s tenure has been marked by tirades against individual judges, threats to ignore the court’s most anticipated rulings and the occasional second-guessing of when judges should and should not recuse themselves on specific cases.”

Political debate and disagreement are part of a healthy democracy. Political interference in the work of our independent courts is decidedly unhealthy.

They deserve a vote!

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:49:00 -0500

The most memorable – and moving -- part of President Obama’s State of the Union address earlier this month came near the end, when he made an impassioned plea for Congress to act on common-sense gun safety proposals.

Referring to the families and friends of victims, as well as thousands of gun violence victims themselves, he told assembled legislators: they deserve a vote!

And while they haven’t yet received a vote in Washington DC, they got one today in Trenton, NJ. Showing courage and leadership, along with a determination to fight for the safety of our children and communities, the Democratic-controlled Assembly passed a raft of gun safety legislation, dealing with everything from weapon-free zones around schools and other public areas to prohibiting the investment of state pension funds in companies that manufacture, import or sell assault weapons for civilian use.

When it comes to our children, they deserve more than just a vote. They deserve the Governor’s signature too.

About half the bills passed with strong bipartisan support. The remainder passed on close to party-line votes, with Democrats largely in support.

NJEA issued a formal position statement on several of the bills dealing most directly with school employees and student safety. And we are working with a coalition headed by Ceasefire NJ that is advocating for smart gun safety legislation to protect children and make our communities safer.

Legislation isn’t the whole solution to the plague of gun violence, but it’s a necessary component of a comprehensive plan to ensure that our schools, streets and homes are safer.

That’s why we congratulate the Assembly for its bold leadership on this issue. Now call on the Senate to follow suit. Pass these bills and put them on Gov. Christie’s desk. Because when it comes to our children, they deserve more than just a vote. They deserve the Governor’s signature too.

Bipartisanship? You betcha!

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:36:00 -0500

After months of planning and organizing, and a week of phone calls and emails from members, a key piece of legislation to expand rights for Education Support Professionals is on the move. It’s a good day for cooperation and common sense in New Jersey.

The Assembly Education Committee voted 7-0 earlier today to move A-3627 out of committee. That bill, which would create common-sense rules governing when and how districts consider subcontracting the jobs of school employees, is a great example of how legislators on both sides of the aisle can work together for the good of all their constituents.

While the bill applies to almost all district employees, it will primarily affect ESPs. They are the bus drivers, food service workers, custodians, secretaries and paraprofessionals who do countless things large and small every day to keep our schools running smoothly and make sure students have a great learning environment.

You can read about the bill here. Suffice to say it brings a measure of stability to both district employees and to the students who rely on them every day. It’s good for districts, good for employees and good for communities.

Not everyone realizes the important role ESPs play in our public schools, or just how vulnerable their jobs are. But a handful of conscientious legislators in both parties have stood up to offer their support by supporting A-3627 and its companion in the Senate, S-1191.

Special credit goes to Sen. Diane Allen (R-Burlington) and Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union) for sponsoring the legislation in the Senate. On the Assembly side, Asm. Herb Conaway (D-Burlington) and Asw. Connie Wagner (D-Bergen) sponsored the bill together. And kudos as well to the two Republicans and five Democrats on the Assembly Ed Committee who voted unanimously to send the bill to the full Assembly.

It’s not often that we find that sort of agreement on any issue relating to public employees in New Jersey. When we do, we ought to make sure we act together to make our schools stronger and more stable.

Here’s a quarter
(call someone who cares)

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:11:00 -0500

Well, who knew Gov. Christie was a country music fan? We all know he idolizes the Boss, but when he conditionally vetoed a much-needed minimum-wage increase this week, he took a page right out of the Travis Tritt songbook, essentially telling New Jersey’s hard-working minimum wage earners, here’s a quarter, call someone who cares.

That’s right. In response to a bill passed by the legislature calling for a $1.25 increase in the minimum wage and future automatic increases tied to the rate of inflation, Gov. Christie countered with a proposed increase of 25 cents an hour in the first year. Minimum wage workers would have to wait until 2015 to see a full dollar increase (still less than what the legislation called for immediately) and would not see any inflation-based increases.

It’s another piece in a mounting pile of evidence that the concerns of working-class New Jersey residents can’t compete on Gov. Christie’s agenda with things like tax cuts for the very wealthy. Try as he might to justify his discredited trickle-down economic theories, he’s going to find it difficult to explain his priorities to voters. They are going to want to know why he’s worked so hard to put more money in the pockets of the wealthy but callously vetoed a common-sense proposal to put a few more dollars in the pockets of hard-working people who need that money just to make it through the week with a little more dignity.

A gun plan, at last

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:34:00 -0500

Just over a month after the horror at Sandy Hook Elementary School spurred Americans across the country and across the political spectrum to “demand a plan” to combat gun violence, President Obama has presented a powerful plan to curb gun violence in America’s schools and communities.

Conspiracy theorists can rest easy. It doesn’t call for federal agents to confiscate weapons, or try to prevent private ownership of guns. But it does call for commonsense legislation to keep our children, and the rest of us too, out of the line of fire.

It’s a four-part plan for Congress to tackle, supplemented by 23 executive actions to start moving us in the right direction immediately. It calls for stronger background checks to keep guns from falling into dangerous hands, a ban on military-style assault weapons, high capacity ammunition clips and armor-piercing bullets that have been used in so many mass shootings, steps to make schools safer through education and training (not by making schools into armed compounds!), and better mental health services to identify and stop some shooters before they turn violent.

School employees can breathe a sigh of relief. The plan is squarely aimed at making schools safer, not by arming employees, but by training them to identify and deal with problems before they arise, and by helping them respond quickly and appropriately in crisis situations. And it aims to keep guns out of the hands of those who might use them for illegal and violent purposes.

In short, it embraces common sense rather than the overheated, underfactual rhetoric of the NRA and other radical gun groups that place the interests of children behind the interests of gun and ammunition manufacturers.

Of course, the gun lobby is still strong, and it’s already reached deep into its bag of dirty tricks, running a deplorable attack ad featuring President Obama’s children. But this may just be the time that the majority of Americans and New Jersey residents who favor commonsense gun safety measures finally prevail over the radical right and its out-of-touch agenda.

Some states are already moving forward without waiting for Congress to act. New York recently passed the nation’s toughest gun control law, and the New Jersey Legislature seems likely to tackle the issue soon, with 18 bills already introduced. That’s sure to make Gov. Christie squirm, as he struggles to simultaneously run for governor in 2013 and president in 2016. But it’s the right thing to do for our schools and our community.

NJEA members can rest assured that NJEA will be fighting alongside them for smart new gun safety rules that help ensure our schools are the learning centers that we know they need, not the armed barracks that the NRA fantasizes about.

We demanded a plan. We got a plan. Now it’s time to fight for that plan.

Rhee's State "Report Card"
gets her a well-deserved "F"

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:01:00 -0500

Let’s just say it now: Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of Washington, D.C.’s public schools, is a fraud.

On Jan. 7, her national StudentsFirst organization, funded by a number of major pro-privatization, anti-union groups and foundations, issued its “State Policy Report Card.”

New Jersey was given a grade of “D.”

But wait. The low grade has nothing to do with student achievement, or the quality of New Jersey’s public schools, which are ranked second overall in the nation, and which lead the nation in a number of categories.

No, StudentsFirst rated states solely on how well they had adopted the policy proposals that it supports: policies like vouchers, more charters, evaluations and compensation tied to student test scores, elimination of seniority, and other such corporate “reforms.”

The two states rated at the top of Rhee’s grade sheet? Louisiana and Florida, where student achievement always ranks at or near the bottom in the nation.

Perhaps the best quote in response to this “research” came from Richard Zeiger, a deputy superintendent for California, which got an “F” grade from Rhee.

He called the failing grade “a badge of honor.”

We at NJEA feel the same way about our “D,” which is a misleading insult to arguably the best public school system in America.

Rhee’s organization, which she has tried to sell as a “bipartisan grassroots movement for reform,” is being exposed for the totally partisan front group that it is. Noted blogger Jersey Jazzman summed it up in a recent entry, referring to StudentsFirst as a “right-wing, Republican money funnel that pretends to be a bipartisan education ‘reform’ group.”

This in the wake of a Huffington Post story noting that StudentsFirst had just witnessed the exodus of a number of prominent Democrats from its staff, one of whom said: “It gets tiresome to have to defend who we are.”

The litany of policies that StudentsFirst used to grade the states reads like a veritable Christmas list for the right-wing corporate reform movement: merit pay, vouchers, slipshod alternate-route certification, public humiliation of teachers who fail to raise test scores, unlimited charters, and the elimination of all job security protections for veteran teachers, including seniority.

But we can thank noted education researcher and writer Diane Ravitch for unveiling what she called the “ultimate irony” of Rhee’s report.

“Rhee wants teachers to be evaluated and fired by test scores,” Ravitch wrote. “She wants schools to be closed by test scores. But when she ranked the states, she didn't look at test scores! If she had, her number one state – Louisiana – would have been at the bottom of her rankings.”

That’s why we give Michelle Rhee and StudentsFirst a big red “F” – for the fraud she is committing in the name of reform.

Strong public charters need
real accountability

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:33:00 -0500

When New Jersey created public charter schools nearly two decades ago, the law was very explicit: charter schools were public schools, and they must be not-for-profit entities with real public accountability in exchange for public funding. In the coming months, New Jersey legislators are expected to review the state’s charter school law. Their charge is to preserve meaningful accountability for charter schools while making sure that they do not become de facto private schools, operated for a profit and shielded from public accountability.

Elsewhere in the country, charter schools are not as carefully monitored or regulated. Two recent blog posts by respected education writer Diane Ravitch underscore the current and potential long-term impact of these schools, and the picture isn’t pretty.

Despite claims by private charter operators that they don’t “skim” students or discriminate in admissions, Ravitch points to a Detroit Free Press story showing that the proportion of students with special needs in Detroit – where more children attend charters than attend public schools – is soaring.

In 2004-5, before Detroit public schools began closing – and charters began to boom – about 14 percent of the city’s students were special needs students. That figure is now 18 percent, and climbing.

With students leaving in droves, Detroit’s overall enrollment of 49,000 is now only a third of what it was a decade ago. But charter schools “are also a factor,” the story notes. “They have attracted about 50,000 Detroit students, but generally do not serve as many special-needs children. In a U.S. Government Accountability Office report this year, charter schools cited limited resources and limited facility space as reasons.”

Those reasons, of course, are not acceptable excuses for public schools, which must accommodate all special needs students or provide out-of-district placement at extremely high costs. Talk about an uneven playing field.

And then there’s Los Angeles.

In another post, Ravitch focuses on the upcoming school board race, in which incumbent board member Steve Zimmer, a veteran teacher and outspoken critic of test score-driven accountability and runaway charter expansion, is opposed by Kate Anderson, who has major endorsements and funding from the state’s powerful charter lobby.

Zimmer incurred the wrath of that lobby when he offered a board resolution calling for greater charter school accountability “and a moratorium on the opening of new charter schools until the new accountability measures are created.”

This election is critical, Ravitch says, because Los Angeles now has more than 100,000 children – about 15 percent of total enrollment – in charter schools. Zimmer points out that charters suffer from “uneven performance,” and an article on his website shows that the city’s public schools actually out-perform charters.

But the corporate charter movement has never let facts get in the way of its headlong rush to unlimited expansion.

That’s why they want Zimmer out, and Anderson in. Davis Guggenheim, who directed the anti-public school, pro-charter propaganda film “Waiting for Superman,” is holding a fundraiser for Anderson.

It’s time to expose the impact of the corporate charter movement on urban schools. Whether it’s “skimming” regular students in Detroit and driving up the proportion of special ed students left in the public schools, or politically steamrolling its way to unlimited expansion in Los Angeles, this movement must be checked and held accountable.

In New Jersey, we must continue to demand that charter schools are operated for the benefit of all students in their communities, not just for a select few, and certainly not for the benefit of for-profit operators looking to fatten their bottom lines.

If not, as Ravitch notes, the future of urban public education – and, ultimately, all of public education – is at risk.

Helping children cope with tragedy

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:40:00 -0500

Today the world weeps for victims of gun violence in schools, this time in Newtown, CT.

As horrifying details continue to emerge from the elementary school shooting earlier today, those of us who work with children, or have children of our own, know that even as we struggle to process the news ourselves, we will also need to help explain to the children in our care what happened, as well as comfort those who are scared or upset by what they see and hear.

PBS.org has posted a useful blog called “Talking with Kids About News” that has helpful strategies for dealing with children’s questions, as well as the emotions they will feel. It provides a step-by-step guide for parents, teachers and others. It also links to other posts with communications strategies, as well as additional ideas on how to discuss the issue with children in an age-appropriate way.

The main body of the PBS post is below, but be sure to follow this link for the entire article.

From PBS.org:

Start by finding out what your child knows. When a news topic comes up, ask an open-ended question to find out what she knows like "What have you heard about it?" This encourages your child to let you know what she is thinking.

Ask a follow up question. Depending on your child's comments, ask another question to get him thinking, such as "Why do you think that happened?" or "What do you think people should do to help?"

Explain simply. Give children the information they need to know in a way that makes sense to them. At times, a few sentences are enough. "A good analogy is how you might talk about sex," adds Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Ed. D. "You obviously wouldn't explain everything to a 5-year-old. Talking about violence and safety is similar."

Listen and acknowledge. If a child talks about a news event (like a local robbery or kidnapping) and is worried,recognize her feeling and comfort her. You might say "I can see you're worried, but you are safe here. Remember how we always lock our doors." This acknowledges your child's feelings, helps her feel secure, and encourages her to tell you more.

Offer reassurance. When a child is exposed to disturbing news, she may worry about her safety. To help her calm down, offer specific examples that relate to her environment like, "That hurricane happened far away but we've never had a hurricane where we live." Actions speak louder than words — so show your child how you lock the door if she gets scared by a news report about robbers, point out the gutters and storm drains if a hurricane story causes fear, and explain what the security guards do at the airport after a story about terrorists.

Tailor your answer to your child's age. The amount of information children need changes age by age. "A kindergartner may feel reassured simply knowing a hurricane is thousands of miles away. An older child may want to know how hurricanes could affect the place where he lives and may want to know what is being done to help those in need. Both ages will be reassured by doing something to help," notes Jane Katch, M.S.T., author of Under Deadman's Skin: Discovering the Meaning of Children's Violent Play.

Source: http://www.pbs.org/parents/talkingwithkids/news/talking.html

Additional Resources

The Best Resources On Talking With Children About Tragedies - Sacramento teacher Larry Ferlazzo
Talking with Kids About News - PBS
A National Tragedy: Helping Children Cope - the National Association of School Psychologists
Helping Students Navigate a Violent World - Teaching Tolerance
Suggested School Safety ‘Teachable Moment’ Lesson - the National Association of School Psychologists
Talking With Children About War and Violence in the World - Educators for Social Responsibility
NJ Schools Move to Reassure Families After Newton Killings - NJ Spotlight
Student and Teacher Resources on the Newtown, Conn. Shootings - New York Times
President Obama’s speech at prayer vigil for Newtown shooting victims
School Crisis Guide - National Education Association Health Information Network

Virtual schools: not so fast

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:12:00 -0500

Last week, NJEA Secretary-Treasurer Marie Blistan testified before the Joint Committee on Public Education on the issue of virtual charter schools. You should read where whole testimony to understand where NJEA stands on the issue. But what she has to say about the role of teachers in education deserves special attention:

“So we are dismayed to see the Department pursuing an agenda, under the guise of virtual charter schools and so-called blended charter schools, which completely ignores the central role of teachers in high quality education.

“Because there are many things no computer screen can do. A computer screen can’t sense if a child is upset, distracted, bored, sick or hungry.

“A computer screen can’t tell if a wrong answer is the result of a simple miscalculation, or a failure to understand the whole concept being taught.

“A computer screen can’t talk to a child about what’s bothering her, refer a child in crisis to intervention services or offer a listening ear to a child who needs it.

“And make no mistake. Those aren’t just nice extras that a teacher offers – those things are a critical part of successful education for every student. And all of them are missing in virtual learning environments, whether it’s a pure virtual school or a so-called blended school where students rarely, if ever, interact face to face with the adults who are supposed to be teaching them.

“Teaching isn’t like tax preparation, where all you need to do is fill in the right data and a computer can do all the hard work. Learning isn’t a video game, where success is defined by putting in enough screen time and completing enough tasks to rise to the next level. Teaching and learning are a fundamentally human interaction, where a teacher and a student work together to help that student understand a concept, apply it, and build on it for greater understanding and more learning.”

Well said, Marie.

Change is inevitable, and progress is important. But we should never lose sight of the student-teacher relationship at the heart of successful learning.

The next attack: Seniority

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:10:00 -0500

You have to give the Christie administration credit. When they say they’re coming after NJEA members, they mean it.

Of course, they never actually say that’s their goal. Instead, they cloak their proposals in terms of “what’s best for students.”

The latest attack is on seniority, because current law says that when layoffs of tenured teachers are taking place, districts must primarily take years of service into account when deciding who is laid off.

Even while praising NJEA’s involvement in crafting the tenure reform law last August, Governor Christie made it clear that he wanted to end seniority rights, promising to do so in the coming year.

Two days before Thanksgiving (nice touch), Assistant Commissioner of Education Peter Shulman sent a memo to superintendents asking them to respond to an electronic survey to “help us better define State efforts around recruitment and retention.”

Utilizing the Survey Monkey program Shulman wanted to know (after asking if districts had experienced a reduction in force (RIF) in any years since 2007) how superintendents would answer the following question: “Please pick the response that best completes the following sentence: The requirement under current law that tenured teachers be reduced in force exclusively on the basis of seniority ______ my districts [sic] flexibility in managing personnel.”

The choices for responding? “Greatly reduces”, “Somewhat reduces”, “Does not affect”, “Somewhat increases”, or “Greatly increases.”

Not very sophisticated stuff. And, if we might suggest, totally transparent.

Yet NJSpotlight.com reported that Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf said “there wasn’t any specific agenda to the survey,” adding with respect to seniority that “the empirical question I had was how consequential is this in terms of its practical impact on districts. We know about it in the abstract, but how does it have real consequences?”

Puh-leeze.

Here are the real consequences of keeping veteran educators on the job in New Jersey, Mr. Cerf: New Jersey’s public schools are among the very best in the nation, and we lead the nation in a number of categories. Talented teachers who excel at their profession are a primary reason for that success.

Attacking seniority is a great way to sow division in the ranks of teachers, and a great way to save cash-starved districts money, given that senior teachers earn more. But you won’t hear the administration admit to those facts.

Instead, they cloak their latest attack on NJEA members as “in the best interests of students.”

But this isn’t about education. It’s about politics, and suggesting otherwise – or denying that this bogus “survey” has no agenda – won’t fool anyone.

This is what a union is

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:27:00 -0500

The Pequannock Township Education Association sent donations to Ocean County schools through the NJEA Back to School Effort. Pictured here are PTEA President Lee Ann Brensinger (l) and Vice President Ann Marie Finnen.

Probably not many of us saw it coming. At least not as it turned out.

Sure, we watched the weather forecasts. We heard terms like “historic,” “freak,” and “frankenstorm” applied to Hurricane Sandy as it gathered over the Atlantic and began to make its way north. Most of us took it seriously, and prepared as best we could for the anticipated effects of a huge storm. We expected downed trees, power outages and even flooding.

But when the rain finally stopped, the tide receded and more stories and images began to emerge from the most devastated areas it was hard not to be shocked by the magnitude of the damage. Familiar landmarks destroyed. Entire communities buried in silt and sand. Countless New Jersey families displaced, some with no homes to return to even after the storm had passed.

It didn’t take long for good people to spring into action, volunteering time, money and supplies to assist the hardest hit. It’s a natural instinct to help out in times like this, and NJEA wasted little time in creating the NJEA Hurricane Sandy Back to School Fund to help our members rebuild their professional lives.

But even as we worked to create the fund, calls were coming in from members across the state, asking what they could do to help. Others didn’t even bother to call – they just went to work, helping neighbors, colleagues and strangers.

A scene this weekend in Ocean County was inspiring, but not surprising. A number of schools there suffered significant damage, including five elementary schools that are unlikely to reopen any time soon. Students and staff in those schools are being relocated to other schools, local churches, and anywhere there is room to set up a classroom and start learning. But they are starting from scratch, without even the basic necessities to make it through a school day.

So this weekend, more than 50 NJEA members and staff gathered in Toms River to assemble backpacks for students and books and classroom supplies for teachers at the five schools. Some of the supplies were purchased from the Back to School Fund, but others were purchased by individual NJEA members and local affiliates on their own. And no one resented giving up a beautiful autumn Sunday to help colleagues and their students.

Because that’s what a union is. It’s people who stand together when times are tough … people who lend a hand to a colleague because it’s the right thing to do … people who understand that we are strongest when we stand in solidarity.

This is a long-term commitment. Schools will be rebuilding and reopening for months, if not longer. NJEA members in many affected districts will need help and support for a long time to come. But they can take this to the bank: their union sisters and brothers stand with them.

Together, we will rebuild.

NJEA to the rescue

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:05:00 -0500

We’re still tallying the number of school buildings that were damaged or even destroyed by Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29-30.

Help is on the way.

NJEA has established a fund that will expedite the delivery of resources and able bodies to help members repair the classrooms of their colleagues.

The NJEA Hurricane Sandy Back to School Fund is already receiving contributions, and it will receive a sizeable kick-start from NJEA later this week.

Through donations of money, materials, and time, NJEA and its members will be helping the state’s hardest-hit schools – and their communities – as they seek to rebuild.

Schools are flooded, classroom supplies have been destroyed, and teachers and school staff are in dire need of assistance. Their union – backed by 195,000 members who are eager to pitch in and help – is now coming to the rescue.

Sandy was a devastating natural disaster. Now, we will witness a very human and organizational response to that disaster, and New Jersey is about to see what a union of people dedicated to each other’s well-being is all about.

(To contribute, send checks to: NJEA Hurricane Sandy Back to School Fund, P.O. Box 13407, Philadelphia, PA 19101.)

Displaced? You can still vote!

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:36:00 -0500

Photo courtesy of Blue Hydrangea Beach Cottage-Belmar, NJ

New Jerseyans from Cape May to Bergen are still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Sandy.

Many have been displaced, living with friends, relatives, or in shelters far from their damaged or destroyed homes.

But just because they’ve been displaced doesn’t mean they can’t vote in the Nov. 6 election.

This information should prove helpful to all displaced individuals and first responders who may not be able to get to a polling place where their primary residence is located.

New Jersey election officials have been working to ensure that everyone displaced by Hurricane Sandy can vote in this election. The level of destruction wrought by this hurricane exceeded the scope of what any of us could have imagined, but we are determined to rebuild and move forward. We want displaced voters and first responders to know that just because Sandy has disrupted their lives, they can still cast their votes. The following methods are available to displaced voters and first responders to cast their ballots this Election Day:

Vote by Provisional Ballot – (Recommended option for displaced voters and first responders)

If you are unable to go to your new polling site, you may vote at any polling location in the state via provisional ballot. Voting by provisional ballot in another county means you can only vote on national and statewide candidates and statewide ballot questions. You can text “where” to 877-877 with your current location to find your closest polling place.

Vote by E-mail or Fax

To vote by e-mail or fax, begin by printing a mail-in ballot application which you can download through the “vote by mail” by clicking here. After completing your application, fax or email the application to your county clerk no later than 5:00 p.m. November 6. After the application is approved, the county clerk will send a ballot to the voter by fax or email. Voters must return their ballots to the county clerk by fax or e-mail by 8:00 p.m. on November 6.

In addition, ALL voters should be aware of the following:

Vote at Your County Elections Office

All registered voters have the option of obtaining and casting their ballot in person at their county elections office until 3:00 p.m. today, Monday, November 5^th.

Find your New Polling Site

Many polling locations were changed due to power outages and unprecedented conditions. To locate your new polling site you can text “where” to 877-877 and follow the prompts or contact your county election officials. Contact information can be found here: http://nj.gov/state/elections/voting-information-local-officials.html

PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS WHO HAVE BEEN DISPLACED.

If you have any questions, call 1-877-NJVOTER (1-877-658-6837)

What’s at stake: Ed funding

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:50:00 -0400

America’s voters will soon decide what direction the country will take over the next four years. For public schools and the people who work in them, the stakes couldn’t be higher. On the Table is looking at the top issues educators are considering as they head to the polls.

Money can’t buy happiness.

But it does buy classroom supplies, textbooks and computers. It provides students with safe, modern learning environments. And it pays the men and women we trust to educate and protect our children when they go to school.

Better funding isn’t the only solution for the challenges our schools face, but it’s a big part of the solution. So when politicians downplay the value of investing in proven reforms like small class sizes, school employees notice, and they react.

On the issue of funding for our schools, Mitt Romney has thrown his support behind the budget developed by Paul Ryan. It’s a budget that would make devastating cuts to education programs, including early childhood education, special education, and Title I funding targeted at low-income students. Those kinds of cuts are in line with the budget priorities Romney had as a governor, when he cut funds for special education, early literacy and even meals for low-income children.

President Obama has increased federal support for education. He signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to save over 400,000 educator jobs. The Education Jobs Fund saved another 150,000 jobs. That’s more than half a million people working in our schools to help children rather than standing in an unemployment line.

The contrast is stark: cuts to successful programs and fewer people to do the important work of educating our children, or investment in our children as an investment in the future.

Where do educators stand on the issue? Just ask. They will tell you.

Romney’s auto bailout payout

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:24:00 -0400

Here’s one right from the files of “you can’t make this up.”

A compelling investigative piece reports that Mitt Romney, who opposed President Obama’s auto industry bailout, and his wife Ann made at least a 3,000 percent profit on his investment in a hedge fund that preyed on that bailout.

And it gets worse. After Delphi Automotive, a major General Motors parts supplier, was bought out by that hedge fund in 2009, the fund’s managers used bailout money to keep the company afloat, while eliminating pensions and health benefits for Delphi retirees. Responsibility for partial payment of those pensions was shifted to the taxpayer-funded Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

And there’s more: thanks to the Citizens United ruling, those same hedge fund operators are paying for TV ads in Ohio in which former Delphi workers incorrectly blame President Obama for their diminished pensions.

Investigative reporter Greg Palast exposes the incredible greed behind Elliott Management’s dismantling of Delphi, which, after gobbling up its stock in 2009 for 67 cents a share – made a $1.3 billion profit, or 44 times its initial investment -- when it took that stock public in 2011.

Romney’s wife, Ann, had at least $1 million of her trust (the minimum required to report by law) invested in Elliott at the time of that stock sale. The Delphi sale earned the Romneys at least $15.3 million on every $1 million they had invested. (Palast suggests their stake may have been much higher, and notes the Romneys have thus far failed to disclose their 2009 taxes, which would show the basis for the investment.)

Not only did the Romneys profit enormously at the expense of Delphi retirees and the American taxpayers, whose bailout money financed the Delphi deal. Delphi’s unionized workforce was subsequently dismantled and shipped overseas.

As Palast reports: “Of the twenty-nine Delphi plants operating in the United States when the hedge funders began buying up control, only four remain, with not a single union production worker. Romney’s ‘job creators’ did create jobs – in China, where Delphi now produces the parts used by GM and other major automakers here and abroad. Delphi is now incorporated overseas, leaving the company with 5,000 employees in the United States (versus almost 100,000 abroad).”

When it comes to “job creation,” voters would appear to have a clear choice.

Testing: A formula for disaster

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:15:00 -0400

Did you know that only the very worst doctors’ patients develop high blood pressure or diabetes?

No really. It’s true. It has to be. What good doctor would allow a patient to continue eating the kind of diet that leads to bad health outcomes? Doctors are highly trained, well-paid professionals. If they can’t keep their patients from getting sick, we ought to fire them. It’s the only way to improve public health in America.

We can replace those ineffective doctors with younger, more energetic doctors who will surely get better results. And even if the results aren’t better, at least the young doctors are cheaper.

It’s ridiculous of course. You can spin the same nonsense about dentists whose patients get cavities, lawyers whose clients are convicted, or any other professional who is judged on factors that hardly tell the whole story of their effort or effectiveness.

But somehow, when it comes to evaluating teachers, no one seems to get the joke. It’s almost an article of faith among reformy types that good teachers will always raise standardized test scores and if scores don’t rise fast enough, then the teacher must be slacking off.

Despite mountains of evidence that student test scores are a poor way to measure teacher effectiveness, many states – including New Jersey – are diving headlong into test-driven evaluation systems, under the guise of “accountability.”

And that’s a shame, because we’d all be well-served by a thoughtful discussion of how to strengthen evaluation. Let’s be clear: no one wants ineffective doctors, dentists, lawyers, or teachers. But we want them measured on the things that really matter, on the things that really reflect their effort and ability. And for teachers, standardized tests just don’t do that.

Teachers understand. Parents get it. But policymakers? Not always. So those of us who get it have to keep up the drumbeat. We have to demand smart, reliable, valid evaluation systems that help truly ineffective teachers improve or move on to something else.

Test-based evaluation will never get us there. They’re a formula for disaster, which could lead to the loss of some of our most talented teachers for all the wrong reasons.

We have to do much better.

End the war on voting

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:28:00 -0400

Pennsylvania voters breathed a sigh of relief on Oct. 2 when a judge ruled that the state’s controversial voter ID law wasn’t going to be implemented – at least in the 2012 election.

The ruling was the latest in a succession of state court decisions pushing back against voter suppression efforts that are clearly linked to the national Republican party.

Recent electoral history may explain why the GOP has declared war on voting.

In the five elections since the first George Bush won in 1988, Republicans have managed to win the popular vote only once – George W. Bush’s narrow win in 2004. In every other election – including W’s controversial electoral college “win” in 2000, the Democrat in the race has earned more votes than the Republican.

If the current polling numbers hold up, President Obama is well-positioned to continue the streak in November.

So what’s a political party to do when the electorate repeatedly -- and convincingly -- rejects its message? Well, it could revise the message. Or it could choose the GOP strategy and try to revise the electorate.

It’s not a strategy that began in 2012. A GOP-orchestrated voter purge that disproportionately targeted African-Americans in Gov. Jeb Bush’s Florida ahead of the 2000 election may well have swung the election to his brother George. And, of course, disenfranchisement is as old as the nation itself.

But the scope of the disenfranchisement effort leading up to the 2012 election is stunning. As many as 5 million legal voters could be denied the right to vote in 2012 unless courts intervene, as they have in Pennsylvania, to stop this despicable march back to the pre-Civil Rights era.

It’s past time for Americans to speak up against this travesty. Too many people bled and died for the right to vote. Our country was founded on democratic principles, but it took nearly two centuries, until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, for the principle of one person, one vote to truly have the force of law throughout America.

Less than half a century later, that principle is in jeopardy. The majority of Americans who believe all Americans deserve the right to vote must speak up and act up to protect that right. We must not tolerate corporate-backed efforts to silence the voices of those who disagree with the corporate agenda.

So whatever your political persuasion, be sure to vote this November. But do more than that. Contact your legislators and your congressional representatives to demand that they stand up against efforts to deny any American citizen the right to full participation in our democracy.

Because a democracy that looks away while voters are disenfranchised is a sham, and America is better than that.

Chris Christie’s “F” in math

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:11:00 -0400

Ever since Governor Christie decided to remove any reference to his once-vaunted “New Jersey Comeback” from his keynote address to the Republican National Convention last month, the news has been nothing but bad about the state’s economy.

Now, scarcely a day goes without another troubling story showing New Jersey sinking deeper into a fiscal hole.

Despite the governor’s cheerleading, the facts are startling.

Our unemployment rate is now up to 9.9 percent – 47^th worst in the nation – trailing only California, Nevada, and Rhode Island, and nearly two points above the national average.

Tax revenues are plummeting – down $100 million from the governor’s rosy projections in the first two months of this fiscal year alone. As a result, Standard & Poor’s, a major bond rating agency, has downgraded New Jersey’s credit outlook from “stable” to “negative,” meaning we will almost certainly be paying even higher interest rates on public bonds.

Yet Christie still insists on $1.5 billion in annual tax cuts that we obviously cannot afford, which earns him an “F” in any math class. And, true to character, he wants most of those tax cuts to go to the wealthiest residents of New Jersey.

That leads to the final bit of bad news. U.S. Census data show that New Jersey’s middle class is shrinking faster than the polar ice caps, while the percentage of both richer and poorer households is increasing.

Only four years ago, one in 22 New Jersey residents received food stamps. Today, that figure has almost doubled to one in 12.

Clearly, something is terribly wrong in our state. There’s no “comeback,” and the governor knows it.

He needs to focus his energy on solving the state’s economic troubles, and he could benefit from some remedial math, because his numbers don’t add up.

A good first step would be to stop campaigning all over the nation to feather his future political nest, and come home to the state he was elected to lead, and whose problems he is expected to solve.

Chicago’s teachers stand tall

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:24:00 -0400

The Chicago teachers’ strike is over, and both sides are now offering their perspective on what it all meant and who won.

Leave it to Diane Ravitch to cut through the spin. In her blog, she wrote: “The strike transformed the teachers from powerless to powerful. The teachers said, ‘Enough is enough. With us, not to us.’”

Those two sentences summarize the significance of the week-long struggle. The Chicago Teachers Union’s 26,000 members drew a memorable line in the sand against a national top-down corporate reform movement that ignores respected research in a headlong rush for test score-driven “accountability.”

Not insignificantly, the CTU website’s FAQ on the settlement includes a sizeable section on what the students of Chicago won, thanks to the courage and conviction of their teachers.

The new contract requires the district to hire more social workers, psychologists, special ed teachers, counselors, and classroom assistants to meet the documented needs of the tens of thousands of disadvantaged students attending the city’s schools.

It maintains limits on class size, thwarting the desire of Mayor Rahm Emanuel to remove all class size limits and pack as many as 55 students into some classes.

It mandates that new textbooks will be available on the first day of school – rather than a week or three into the school year, as was too often the case.

And it requires the district to hire over 600 additional teachers in art, music, physical education, and other non-tested subjects, to enrich the school day. As a corollary, the contract reduces the focus on standardized testing by lowering the percentage of teacher evaluations based on raising test scores. That’s great news for students, parents, and teachers alike, none of whom benefit in any way from teaching to the test.

Yes, the CTU won a fair salary settlement and the right for laid-off teachers to bid for new positions.

By any measure, Chicago students and their parents were major winners in this struggle. But as the CTU website notes, the gains are “FAR from enough. The strike, unfortunately, is NOT the end of the fight for the schools Chicago’s students deserve.”

To the entire CTU and its intrepid leader, Karen Lewis – who, incidentally, is a Nationally Board Certified teacher – we all owe a hearty thanks.

And to the corporate reformers who believe they can impose their will on professional educators and their unions, the message from Chicago was a firm one: not so fast.

Romney's economic plan:
bash unions

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 11:47:00 -0400

Mitt Romney’s speech at the Republican National Convention might have been short on specifics, but he did lay out a five-point economic plan in Fortune last month.

So how does he propose to fix the economy? Does he want more accountability from the financial sector, where reckless behavior cost taxpayers trillions in bailouts? Um, nope. He’s a deregulation kind of guy.

How about asking the ultra-wealthy to contribute their fair share? No again. His deficit reduction plan is all about budget cuts – just don’t ask him to specify what he’d cut to close the gaps he promises to close.

So what is the plan? According to Fortune, he told them that part three, out of five, is “going after teachers' unions.” That’s right. Because after all, it was teachers and their unions who sabotaged the economy under George W. Bush, remember? Right. And only by crushing unions can we, uh, what, stabilize the housing market? Close the growing wealth inequality? Ensure that banks don’t game the system to their advantage?

Wait, what was the question again? Because Mitt’s answer makes no sense. Maybe it’s a contractual requirement to bash unions once every five sentences when you are in the pocket of ALEC and the Koch brothers. But it won’t fix the mess that trickle-down economics and deregulation zealotry have created.

But hey, why have a plan when you can have a bogeyman instead?

Civility as a path to common ground

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:59:00 -0400

Both presidential campaigns took the day off from negative advertising today, out of respect for the anniversary of 9/11 and what it means to our country. It is good to know that at least on this day, civility prevailed over partisan politics.

While 9/11 was one of our nation’s greatest tragedies, it was also one of the few times in recent history when Americans truly came together around the common values that unite us instead of fighting over the disagreements that divide us.

Debate is healthy, and even necessary to a functioning democracy. But so is civility. So is listening. So is finding common ground with one’s opponents in order to make progress that serves everyone’s best interests.

It’s not easy in the supercharged, hyperpartisan world in which we live. But if we can do it today, perhaps tomorrow we can all do a better job of standing up proudly for what we believe in rather than simply attacking and demonizing those with whom we disagree.

America – and the world – could benefit from that evolved approach, and nothing would be a better tribute to the thousands of innocent people who lost their lives 11 years ago.

We are Chicago

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:55:00 -0400

While no one was happy to hear that Chicago teachers are on strike, the stakes in that struggle go beyond the headlines and sound bites.

In fact, New Jersey educators share many of the concerns voiced by their colleagues in Chicago. They may be members of a different national union, but they are facing the same attacks on their profession as we are.

As the website Labor Notes points out in an excellent overview article, the strike is about “nothing less than a faceoff between two conflicting visions of public education.”

True, the Chicago Board of Education has apparently made a fair salary offer, but this strike is about much more than teacher compensation.

It’s about a corporate takeover of the city’s schools. It has already led to the closing of more than 100 schools and replaced them with charters, and if current Mayor Rahm Emanuel has his way, another 100 (about 15 percent) of the city’s schools will face the same fate.

With all due respect to Emanuel, who told reporters that the remaining issues “are not financial issues,” he’s wrong. One of the key issues for the Chicago Teachers Union is its members’ recall rights when their schools are closed. With Chicago teacher evaluations based to an unacceptable degree on student test scores – something every NJEA member knows is bad policy – the potential is obvious for laying off more experienced teachers to pave the way for cheaper, less-experienced replacements, including Teach for America’s fresh faces, who last an average of three years on the job.

As the Labor Notes article points out, credit should be given to the CTU for insisting that some issues other than salaries need to be resolved.

Those include class size (some reportedly as high as 50), a broadened and enriched curriculum (instead of a narrow focus on only those subjects being tested), and in-school social services so necessary for disadvantaged urban students.

These are financial issues, too, Mayor Emanuel.

For NJEA members – who next year may be facing evaluations based to an uncomfortable degree on student test scores, and whose seniority rights are under constant attack, the events in the Windy City are a troubling reminder that the assault on public education is a national one.

In that regard, we are all Chicagoans.

Tune in, act up, opt out?

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:18:00 -0400

Parents push back against test mania

It’s the first week of school for most of us, bringing the familiar rush of excitement. Reconnecting with colleagues. Meeting new students. Trying out new lesson plans. Prepping for standardized tests.

Oh wait, you’re not excited about test prep season, which now seems to last all year? You aren’t alone. There is a growing consensus among parents that the mania for testing, which started with No Child Left Behind and is only growing, has made schools worse, not better.

Parents get it. They hate seeing the curriculum narrowed and their children’s opportunities limited in the name of practicing how to ace multiple choice tests.

And that’s a good thing, because parents are going to be important advocates in the fight against the growing “testification” of public education. As educators, we can speak out against the testing craze, but as long as our livelihood relies at least partly on students’ test scores, we have little choice but to play the game as the rules are currently written.

Parents don’t have those limitations. And some of them are starting to act on their convictions. It’s a hopeful sign that they are willing to stand up to the harmful ideas that are hurting our schools.

We need to keep spreading the word that overreliance on standardized tests harms real education. It’s good to know that we have some allies in this fight who have a real stake in how it turns out.

Workers’ rights: Who needs ‘em?

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:52:00 -0400

GOP platform a gangplank for workers

If a political party’s platform is a window into its soul, then when it comes to labor and workers' rights the one approved last week in Tampa at the GOP convention should tell union members all they need to know about the folks hoping to take over the White House.

It calls for a nationwide “Right to Work” law. Or, as it would be called if legislation had to be named more honestly, the “Right to Work for Minimum Wage (until we eliminate minimum wage too)” law. Calling that attack on workers “Right to work” deserves some sort of George Orwell award. (If that award doesn’t already exist, someone should create it.)

The same platform would limit union members’ political power by muting our voice at exactly the same time that corporations are being given unlimited ability to spend shareholders’ money with little or no transparency. It makes perfect sense for a party that believes “corporations are people, my friend” but casts unions as the enemy.

And while they’re at it, they call for repealing the 81-year-old Davis-Bacon Act that requires the federal government to pay a prevailing wage on its construction projects. Why? Because somehow the GOP believes the government is wasting billions of taxpayer dollars by paying decent wages to American taxpayers. Looks like there may be some competition for this year’s Orwell Award.

And for good measure, the platform calls for an end to teacher tenure, so that schools “can attract fresh talent and dedication in the classroom.” But we can always hope… maybe their merit pay schemes will lead to $1 million teacher salaries, so we can all get a nice tax break out of the deal.

Hey, it’s no crazier than what’s actually in the platform.

No sale in Tampa

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:49:00 -0400

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012.

Christie’s angry summer bummer

It wasn’t what Chris Christie envisioned.

Given most of the summer to write a speech selling himself as the next big thing to his fellow Republicans, our governor appears to have fallen flat on his face with his nationally televised keynote address to the GOP convention.

At least part of his intent was to convince a national audience of the great job he’s done in New Jersey. But based on reviews from both sides of the aisle, Christie’s speech may have permanently crippled his image as a national figure.

Thanks to recently released data, our governor had to toss his “Jersey Comeback” narrative overboard, because – like so many of his boasts – it’s sorely lacking in veracity. There’s something about the third-worst unemployment rate in the nation (and the highest in New Jersey in the past 35 years) that takes the air out of all the “comeback” talk.

More than one pundit talked about the angry tone of Christie’s speech, as if we haven’t seen plenty of that in the past three years. What has become a troubling tendency in New Jersey was on full display in Tampa, and it wasn’t pretty. Neither was his roundly criticized self-aggrandizement for the first 17 minutes of his speech, during which he never once mentioned the man he was ostensibly there to praise.

But most troubling, from our perspective, was his return to union-bashing. It was bad enough that he misrepresented NJEA’s role in crafting the recent tenure reform legislation. (To hear Christie tell it, we were dragged kicking and screaming to the bill signing, at which he actually praised NJEA for its positive, collaborative role in the process.) Those who saw Christie’s original bill and compared it to NJEA’s thoughtful, research-based proposal, know whose ideas proved most acceptable at the end of the process.

When Christie told the delegates that “tonight we choose respect over love,” and followed that with “we believe in teachers,” you could almost hear 125,000 teachers across New Jersey utter a collective “are you kidding?” This was right after he insulted our union in yet another effort at dividing and conquering.

Our governor apparently just can’t help himself. But it would be nice if he could take a stab at honesty, just once.

You see, Governor, you can’t say you “believe in” teachers and school employees when you’ve spent three years demeaning them, disrespecting them, scapegoating them, and blaming them for problems you just aren’t solving.

If you “respected” us, you wouldn’t have lied in an open campaign letter to us promising not to change our pensions, because that’s what you did. You wouldn’t have cut more than a billion dollars from state school spending in your first year – forcing 10,000 of us to lose our jobs. You wouldn’t have ignored the fact that our public schools rank at or near the top nationally in virtually every measure, while continually using the phrase “failing public schools” as if it were one word. You wouldn’t be trying to tie our careers to student test scores when every credible study says that’s a disastrous and doomed approach.

But while we’ve come to expect this abuse, this time America got an up-close look at our governor’s aura, and based on the reviews, it’s apparently “no sale.”

NJEA Blog

Measuring student progress and teacher effectiveness post-Sandy

"The beautiful human-ness of these students, their families, and their teachers cannot be measured by a standardized test, and yet is so very worthy of “reward status.” No government proclamation, no scheduled visit, no appreciation week, no single test score can capture that adequately."

Those misleading new School Performance Reports

The student growth conundrum Part II

The student growth conundrum, Part I

Judges aren't puppets

They deserve a vote!

When it comes to our children, they deserve more than just a vote. They deserve the Governor’s signature too.

Bipartisanship? You betcha!

Here’s a quarter (call someone who cares)

A gun plan, at last

Rhee's State "Report Card" gets her a well-deserved "F"

Strong public charters need real accountability

Archives

2012

2012

December

November

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September

Helping children cope with tragedy

Additional Resources

Virtual schools: not so fast

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2012

2012

November

October

September

The next attack: Seniority

This is what a union is

Archives

2012

2012

November

October

September

NJEA to the rescue

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2012

2012

November

October

September

Displaced? You can still vote!

Vote by Provisional Ballot – (Recommended option for displaced voters and first responders)

Vote by E-mail or Fax

In addition, ALL voters should be aware of the following:

Vote at Your County Elections Office

Find your New Polling Site

What’s at stake: Ed funding

Romney’s auto bailout payout

Testing: A formula for disaster

Archives

End the war on voting

Chris Christie’s “F” in math

Chicago’s teachers stand tall

Romney's economic plan: bash unions

Civility as a path to common ground

We are Chicago

Tune in, act up, opt out?

Parents push back against test mania

Workers’ rights: Who needs ‘em?

GOP platform a gangplank for workers

No sale in Tampa

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Christie’s angry summer bummer

Here’s a quarter
(call someone who cares)

Rhee's State "Report Card"
gets her a well-deserved "F"

Strong public charters need
real accountability

Romney's economic plan:
bash unions