Thursday, April 12, 2012
NJ Spotlight: With No Child off the books, NJ puts new labels on school accountability
With No Child Left Behind essentially off the books, welcome to New Jersey’s new age — and labels — for school accountability, The Christie administration yesterday released the final list of schools that will be highlighted under new accountability rules that put heightened attention on the very lowest and the very highest achieving schools, while giving leeway to the vast middle. Replacing the labels of “schools in need of improvement” in the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the new nomenclature will be Priority Schools, Focus Schools and Reward Schools. The lists total 370 schools in all, about a seventh of the state’s 2,500 schools. South Orange Middle School, Maplewood Middle School, and Clinton Elementary School (which hosts the …
Monday, February 13, 2012
The writer contends that the leveling system is a pyramid with a small group
of high achievers at the very top, and supports change that would turn that pyramid upside down — increasing the number of high achievers.
Superintendent Dr. Brian Osborne’s proposals for change at Columbia High School and the middle schools have now been the subject of three community meetings, many conversations, and a petition drive by those who oppose the recommendations. Maybe the biggest concern I hear is that these changes will necessarily “water down” our curriculum, or force teachers to teach to the “lowest common denominator.” As a parent of two children in the district (a 5th grader and a 7th grader), I certainly understand these concerns. However, I think those fears have it exactly backwards. Current restructuring proposals by the district, along with a variety of other programmatic and curricular changes already in progress, represent a well-considered …
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf gives his take on recent data regarding the achievement gap.
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Thursday, February 9
The following is a statement released on Thursday by Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf. The graphs he references are attached as images. The NJEA over the last several months has indicated again and again that they are not especially troubled with the significant achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers in New Jersey. In December, the NJEA distributed a press release suggesting that my claim that New Jersey has a “shameful” achievement gap was a “straw man” and based on a “deliberate misuse of data.” Instead, NJEA President Barbara Keshishian argued that while there is an achievement gap in New Jersey between white and African American students, and also high-income and low-income …
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Budget cuts cost New Jersey school districts $1 billion, with some of the poorest districts paying the biggest price.
The annual release of New Jersey school test scores can be maddening in its mixed messages, according to NJ Spotlight. On the one hand, the 2010-2011 scores released yesterday rose slightly or at least held steady overall in a majority of grades, a good thing for what have been tough times. In math, there were some notable gains for any given year. On the other, state officials are quick to point out that the gaps in achievement between rich and poor, white and minority, are wide and in some instances widening alarmingly. Those results are unsurprising, insofar as they reflect nationwide trends. But the findings have taken on added weight under Gov. Chris Christie and his education reform agenda, much of it aimed at districts where the …
Friday, December 16, 2011
A parent comments on the discussions around the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education's decision to combine Levels 3 and 4 in 7th grade science, social studies and English language arts.
Four years ago my husband and I, along with several other local parents, launched a campaign to bring the International Baccalaureate Program to our schools, particularly the Middle Years Program. With a son in middle school, I hold ever more fervently to those same core principles for our children: challenging, interdisciplinary, inquiry-based education that prepares our students for a global future. I believe we must move our discussion of greater challenge in the middle school out of the deleveling debate. This only obscures the issue, making it a subset of another urgent matter--the achievement gap—thus making it part of a contentious, polarizing conversation. It makes those who are frustrated with even the upper level classes feel …
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Test results indicate pronounced achievement gap between black and white students in the district.
The results of a the statewide standardized test NJ Ask showed a clear achievement gap between white and black students in the South Orange Maplewood school district, with white students outpacing black ones in almost all categories in both Language Arts and Math. While there was some positive news, Schools Superintendent Brian Osborne and members of the School Board focused on the achievement gap data after the report was presented in a slide show at the Sept. 21 meeting. Osborne emphasized that the data was new and cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from it now. He did, however, have strong words about the achievement gap data. “The gap numbers continue to be disturbing,” Osborne said, adding that the district needs to “take …
40.735883
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South Orange Maplewood Board of Education
525 Academy St, Maplewood, NJ
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Marian Cutler
12:26 am on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Our District has lost its way with academic placement. While our current system is flawed, the same thing is true about the alternative system being rolled out in our middle schools. This amounts to "two wrongs do not make a right". Yet, we have an obligation to "get it right" for every single one of our children. Let's stop that conversations that start/stop with a personal position on levels. … more ›