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NJ Spotlight articles: NJ Spotlight - Democrat Proposes $5 Million Fund to Foster Innovation in NJ Schools…State Senate bill revives Christie administration proposal rejected by Legislature this summer
NJ Spotlight - Profile: Fund CEO Has Unobstructed View of Newark's Charters…With help from the likes of Gates and Zuckerberg, Mashea Ashton juggles advocacy and support for city's charters
NJ Spotlight - Democrat Proposes $5 Million Fund to Foster Innovation in NJ Schools…State Senate bill revives Christie administration proposal rejected by Legislature this summer
John Mooney | November 13, 2013
August 6 2012: Sen. Teresa Ruiz speaking after Gov. Chris Christie signed TEACHNJ Act.
Once rejected by the Legislature, the Christie administration’s attempt to set up a competitive grant program for school innovation is getting a second life in the lame-duck session – this time with the help of a prominent Democrat.
State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) has filed a bill to be heard on Thursday that would create an Innovation Fund and appropriate $5 million in its first year to help schools trying new programs in scheduling, technology and other areas.
The proposal is a mirror image of the fund that Gov. Chris Christie included in his fiscal 2014 state budget, but which was cut out of the final spending plan by the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
Ruiz signed off on that cut as a member of the state Senate budget committee. She explained yesterday that she felt it was not ready for approval at that time.
“But I was very clear that it was something we need to revisit,” Ruiz said in an interview. “It was a great concept, but people had questions.”
Now, she said, such a fund – with guidelines -- could help school districts fund certain programs that would not otherwise get funded. She has especially advocated extended school-day programs.
“For me, it’s a great way for districts to think outside the box,” Ruiz said.
There were a couple of key exceptions written into the bill filed last week, although there was no assurance they would remain in the final proposal.
One was that the money could not be used for performance bonuses or merit pay for teachers, a nod to the state’s powerful teachers unions.
The second was that it could not be used for online instructional programs. The unions have also been dead-set against charter school proposals for so-called virtual schools that would teach students entirely online.
The bill would also require that a state-level advisory committee be created to oversee the grants and that each school district receiving funds form a local “innovation grant committee” that includes a member of the local teachers union.
The grants would not be available to charter schools under the proposal.
The bill is expected to be heard on Thursday by the Senate Education Committee, which Ruiz chairs. It will be the committee’s first meeting since last week’s state elections in which Christie and virtually all legislative incumbents were reelected.
Even though the Legislature hasn’t changed much, Christie has said he might try to push through some pet projects during the lame-duck session, including the proposed Opportunity Scholarship Act, the state’s version of a school-voucher program.
Nonetheless, besides the new innovation fund, the Senate committee’s agenda is light for Thursday. Other bills listed for consideration include one calling for a task force to study all-day kindergarten and another to establish standards for teaching students the appropriate use of social media.
NJ Spotlight - Profile: Fund CEO Has Unobstructed View of Newark's Charters…With help from the likes of Gates and Zuckerberg, Mashea Ashton juggles advocacy and support for city's charters
John Mooney | November 13, 2013
Name: Mashea Ashton
Job: Chief Executive Officer, Newark Charter School Fund, 2009-present
Birthplace: Willingboro, NJ, where she was an All-American high school soccer player
What she does: With a staff of seven and commitments of almost $30 million in grants and programs over the past five years, Ashton has become a central player in the city’s nationally recognized charter school movement. Schools operate separately, but the fund provides advocacy and support for staff training, recruitment, and other improvements. It is also a key partner with the Newark public schools in developing the city’s fledgling universal enrollment system.
How big is Newark charter community? Twenty-two schools and growing, serving some 10,000 students, close to a quarter of the overall public school enrollment in the city. Newark’s charters also account for more than a quarter of all charters in New Jersey.
Where it gets its money: The fund is built on donations from several prominent national foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as local ones like the Prudential Foundation and the Victoria Foundation. A main contributor in the latest round of support is the Foundation for Newark’s Future, the organization funded through the $100 million donation to the city by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
How she got here: Ashton taught three years in traditional public schools in Williamsburg, Va., and Washington, D.C., before she moved to the charter sector as a program administrator in Chicago and then New York City. She worked four years with the KIPP charter school network and then headed New York City’s charter school office, before coming to Newark in 2009 to lead the new fund.
Why charters? Ashton said her experience teaching found the challenges to urban education more about the adults than the children, and she saw charter schools as a viable alternative to traditional public schools.
A boy named Nicholas: As an education major at the College of William and Mary, Ashton said an African-American fifth-grader named Nicholas told her that he’d do no better than end up in jail. “That frustrated me, but how could you have such low expectations for a child, only in fifth grade,” she said. “That stuck with me.”
Charters just one piece: “I don’t think the charters are the magic bullet or that all schools should be charters. It’s really about having a portfolio of high-quality schools, and seeing charters as part of the solution and strategy of bringing quality education options to all kids.”
Early lesson in power of school choice: One of two twin girls, Ashton said she was pulled from Willingboro public schools by her mother after kindergarten, when the school wanted to hold her and her sister back. She went to Catholic schools and thrived, even beyond her soccer honors at Holy Cross High School in Delran, and eventually went to the College of William and Mary. “If my mother didn’t have the advocacy to take us out of a school that wasn’t working and put us on this path . . .” she said. “It made all the difference.”
Twin travels in the same circles: Ashton’s twin sister, Michele Mason, is a program officer with Teach for America in Newark.
District vs. charter schools: Newark is notorious for its public battles between district and charter schools, especially since superintendent Cami Anderson has sought to share space between the two. Ashton said the arguments were rancorous but the discussion was worthwhile. “There is still a tremendous amount of misinformation and myth around what charter schools are,” she said.
Access and equity: A big criticism of charters is that they enroll and retain the same students that traditional schools are required to serve. Ashton maintained that Newark charter schools, by and large, serve students equally, but recognized there is work to do to increase the transparency of the schools overall. “The reality is we don’t have good data across the city on retention, real promotion rates,” she said. “There may be some school that are bad actors in this, but I do believe that most go above and beyond to provide a quality education to children.”
What happened to Nicholas: Ashton reached out six months ago and made contact with Nicholas, her student from Williamsburg. And despite her best efforts, she said he ended up doing time in jail. “It is absolutely about high expectations, but we also have to give students the skills to compete, and also the tenacity and grit to persevere and fight through real challenges,” she said.
Personal: Ashton has 3-year-old twins herself, Duke and Dylan. She and her husband, a banker, live in Manhattan.
