| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Buzz
7-22-19 Education in the News
NJ Spotlight--Murphy Scraps Christie’s Salary Cap for School Superintendents
Nine years after former Gov. Chris Christie limited how much New Jersey superintendents could be paid, his successor ends the restriction...'
NJ Spotlight--New Law Will Require NJ Schools to Teach About Sexual Abuse New Jersey is latest state to adopt ‘Erin’s Law,’ calling for age-appropriate education on the topic from preschool to 12th grade...' Star Ledger--166 N.J. school districts don’t spend enough money. Is yours one of them? New Jersey pours more than $8 billion in state funding into its K-12 classrooms every year, and property owners contribute another $15 billion annually through school taxes. And yet, somehow, it still isn’t enough money...' Star Ledger--There is no maximum salary any longer for NJ school superintendents Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday signed a bill doing away with a $191,584 cap on school superintendent salaries in New Jersey, killing one of former Gov. Chris Christie’s most controversial education policies...' Asbury Park Press—How Much Does Your School Spend to Education a Kid? The average cost per student to educate a New Jersey kid is about $16,000. But some districts spend a lot more—and a lot less...' Education Week--Influential Reading Group Makes It Clear: Students Need Systematic, Explicit Phonics The International Literacy Association has put out a new brief endorsing "systematic and explicit" phonics in all early reading instruction...' Politics K-12 (Education Week)--Cory Booker's Brother, a Failed Charter School, and the Presidential Race 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...' Edutopia--Study Strategies Beyond Memorization Using a metacognitive exercise helps students know what they should and shouldn’t study...' NPR--Parents, Sometimes You're The Problem When It Comes To Tech Use Elise Potts picked up her 17-month-old daughter, Eliza, from daycare recently. When they got home they were greeted by a strange scene...'
7-19-19 Education in the News
Education Week--Teachers Support Social-Emotional Learning, But Say Students in Distress Strain Their Skills
In Tacora Snell's 5th grade classroom, it's not unusual for students to tell her that they need a break...'
Chalkbeat--One year in, Gates-funded networks of schools are getting off the ground — and more are on the way Baltimore’s school leaders have a clear goal: to improve their eighth and ninth-graders’ reading and writing skills. They also have $11 million from the Gates Foundation to help do it...' Edutopia--Teaching Students How to Ask for Help Students first need to recognize that they need help, and then they need to know that they’ll be supported when they ask for it...'
7-18-19 Education in the News
NJ Spotlight--NJ Top Court Rules Student Records Not Covered by Open Access
In split decision, court upholds appellate ruling, shuts the door on all requests for confidential records, even those that have been redacted...'
NJ Spotlight--Superintendent’s 2020 Plan for Newark’s Schools: What to Expect Observers are watching closely to see whether Roger León’s ideas translate into action and improvements for students...' Star Ledger--Murphy defends hiring Cory Booker’s brother — with a quote from a football coach Before Cary Booker was hired for a top state education job in New Jersey, he co-founded a Tennessee charter school that was described as a “clusterf---” and ordered to close in 2016 for poor performance...' Star Ledger--N.J. now requires schools to have panic alarms. It may soon be law across the nation. New Jersey got a new law earlier this year that will require its 2,500 public schools to have silent panic alarms to help protect students during emergencies like an active shooter. Now, it may become law across the nation...' Asbury Park Press—Op-Ed: Is Skill Set of Cory Booker’s Brother Worth 150G? Was the hiring of Cory Booker’s brother, Cary, just another scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch- yours patronage hire by Governor Murphy?...'
7-17-19 Education in the News
NJ Spotlight--Op-Ed: Lessons of Newark’s School Construction Successes, Mistakes
The state could have built almost twice as many schools for Newark kids if it followed the model of one of the city’s charter schools...'
The Atlantic--The Financial Calamity That Is the Teaching Profession Teachers are suing the government over debt relief that never came—but their financial problems go much deeper than student loans...' Education Week--Cyberbullying Is on the Rise Among Teenagers, National Survey Finds CORRECTED While smartphones, tablets, and other digital tools have transformed how schools teach, they've also changed the way students interact with one another...' Education Week--What to Do When Physics Teachers Don't Know Physics More and more high school students are getting interested in physics, but schools are in a tough spot: It's hard to find physics teachers, so they often tap teachers with little-to-no training in the subject...' Education Dive--Schools redress rules amid passage of anti-discriminatory state policies Dive Brief: More school districts are adopting lenient dress code policies,...'
7-16-19 Education in the News
Education Week--State Lawmakers Tackle Broad Basket of Issues on Parent Checklist
Safety, data privacy draw fresh attention
School security, the charter school sector, and student-data privacy were among the issues of interest to parents that drew significant attention from state lawmakers in this year's legislative sessions, the majority of which have now wrapped up for 2019...'
Edutopia--6 Tips for Managing the Feedback Workload Providing feedback is proven to increase student learning, and there are ways to make the work involved more manageable. We know that giving students feedback works: In his meta-analysis, John Hattie found that it has an effect size of 0.7, which is beyond the “hinge point,” or average effect size, of 0.4—meaning that it has a significant effect on student learning...' The Hechinger Report--Rethinking school schedules to support innovation Getting creative with class-period lengths and staffing plans can dramatically reduce class sizes and increase teacher collaboration time...'
7-15-19 Education in the News
The Atlantic-- The White Suburbs That Fought Busing Aren’t So White Anymore And the politics of school integration need not look like they used to...' NPR--States Are Ratcheting Up Reading Expectations For 3rd-Graders Nineteen states have adopted "mandatory retention" policies, which require third-graders who do not show sufficient proficiency in reading to repeat the grade...' Chalkbeat--What it means when Democratic frontrunners say they support the Strength in Diversity Act...' The Hechinger Report--OPINION: What’s missing in music education? Cultural and social relevance Teaching 'music where kids are, and with what interests them' ...' Edutopia--The Reading Wars: Choice vs. Canon English teachers are wrestling with how to navigate the increasingly contentious terrain between student choice and assigning the classics...'
7-12-19 Education in the News
Star Ledger--Cory Booker’s brother opened a school so bad it got shut down. N.J. just gave him a $150K education job
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A thousand miles from Newark, in a tiny old school building tucked behind a Christian church, Cary Booker delivered the bad news...'
Education Week--Teachers Push for Books With More Diversity, Fewer Stereotypes Most texts feature white characters...'
7-11-19 Education in the News
Chalkbeat (via NJ Spotlight)-- No Funding in Sight to Repair Newark’s Crumbling Schools
Buildings in cash-strapped district have leaky roofs, damaged walls, peeling paint, old electrical systems, missing sinks and toilets...'
Star Ledger--Lakewood’s explosive growth is hurting us. We want a say in land development, board says. Amid the pending legal battles and legislation linked to funding problems stemming from Lakewood’s growing private school population, district officials now want a say in land use matters...' Edutopia--Evidence-Based Scheduling With Daniel Pink The best-selling author explains why the order of the school day should look different for elementary and high school students...' Associated Press (via Education Week)--Most Attackers in Shootings Last Year Made Prior Threats, Report Finds Washington One-third of the attackers who terrorized schools, houses of worship, or businesses nationwide last year had a history of serious domestic violence, two-thirds had mental health issues, and nearly all had made threatening or concerning communications that worried others before they struck, according to a U.S. Secret Service report on mass attacks...' Education Dive--Report: More states pursuing innovative assessment models...'
7-10-19 Education in the News
The Atlantic--Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong
In the early grades, U.S. schools value reading-comprehension skills over knowledge. The results are devastating, especially for poor kids...'
Education Week--Digital Content, Open Resources, Cybersecurity, and Makerspaces: That's What's on This Superintendent's Mind Makerspaces, robotic arms, virtual-reality goggles, 3D printers, a flight simulator, and a whole lot of iPads. The 12,300-student Township High School District 214 in suburban Chicago already offers its students access to a wide variety of new technologies. But Superintendent David Schuler is always thinking ahead to what’s coming next and whether it has any real educational value...' Chalkbeat--Can ‘growth’ data push parents to more integrated schools? A new study says maybe Families choosing schools for their kids can find themselves awash in information, from test scores and demographic data to local knowledge gleaned by talking to friends and family...' Education Dive--Roughly 17% of teachers working second or summer jobs A statistical analysis of National Center for Education Statistics data by the Pew Research Center shows roughly 16% of public school teachers in the United States worked non-school summer jobs in the summer of 2015, and even more — about 18% — held second jobs during the 2015-16 school year, making them three times more likely than workers overall to hold down multiple jobs...'
7-9-19 Education in the News
NJ Spotlight--Two Days on the Job, BOE President Talks Takeovers, Exit Tests, and More
Kathy Goldenberg is a big believer in public education, and an equally big believer that New Jersey students deserve the best...'
NY Times--An Online Preschool Closes a Gap but Exposes Another It is not a program for children of the rich. It is geared to lower-income families who have fewer prekindergarten options...' Education Week--14 Questions Educators Should Ask About AI-Based Products As more education companies power their products with artificial intelligence, K-12 decisionmakers more urgently need guidance to evaluate vendors’ claims about what that AI can do...' Politics K-12 (Education Week)--Schools' Top Priority for Flexible ESSA Grants Is Safer, Healthier Students When district leaders are given a fair amount of discretion over federal funds, one of their main responses is that they want to focus the money on their students' welfare. That's according to survey data released last week by a coalition of school business officers, superintendents, and others...' The Hechinger Report--OPINION: When it comes to raising school achievement, is love in the mix? Giving students and educators the positive support they need...'
7-8-19 Education in the News
Star Ledger--School district was counting on $30M. It’s suing the state after lawmakers said no.
School officials in Lakewood have filed a federal discrimination lawsuit over the state’s failure to provide an additional $30 million in funding...'
The Record—Op-Ed: Districts Can Save Millions by Prioritizing Public Specialized Schools Over Private Ones Educational Services Commission New Jersey offers comparable curricula to private schools, by teachers educated in the same universities...' Asbury Park Press—Op-Ed: Fix New Jersey’s School Funding Formula, Busing Policies NOW! The Lakewood school district’s perpetual funding problems should never have reached this stage...' NY Times--Do You Support Busing?’ Is Not the Best Question Issues of educational inequality raised by a 1970s-era practice remain relevant today, but language can obscure what’s really at stake...' NPR--Kindness Vs. Cruelty: Helping Kids Hear The Better Angels Of Their Nature Are humans born kind?...' |
The Special Education Task Force Report was released in November 2015. GSCS, a Task Force member, looks forward to discussion on this important topic under the Murphy administration. See below for a link to the report. RELATED LINKS
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Garden State Coalition of Schools | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
print
