Opinion & Analysis

The governor’s education reform program, which just completed its first school year, appears out of danger concerning loss of support in the upcoming two-year budget.

When groups representing educators discuss the achievement gap, they often say, “We know what works.’’ Far too often, though, that knowledge fails to produce results.

The closure of the Buena Vista School District should be viewed as a canary in the coal mine. Early coal mines had poor ventilation systems and since canaries are sensitive to gases, they would detect danger long before it became fatal to miners.

Private education as we have known it is on its way out, at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels. At the very least, it's headed for dramatic shrinkage, save for a handful of places and circumstances, to be replaced by a very different set of institutional, governance, financing, and education-delivery mechanisms.

While data gained via standardized tests like NJASK may be extremely helpful, especially when paired with other data points, the over-emphasis on such testing is a classic example of how state and federal mandates are threatening to completely bypass local control.

A recent randomized controlled study by Mathematica Policy Research and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University reported that, in schools that employ recess management firm Playworks, there was less bullying, a greater feeling of safety among students, more vigorous physical activity, and less time lost transitioning from recess to classroom learning.

At least 178 teachers and principals are involved. Superintendent Beverly Hall is being prosecuted as the ringleader, allegedly raking in half a million dollars in bonuses for “excellence in academic achievement.” That “achievement” was changing the answers on students’ CRCT tests to reap millions for her district.

What makes the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) inappropriate as a tool for 4K students? The test takes a minimum of 45 minutes of one-on-one testing per child. It has no applicability to children who are learning English. Centers will “teach to the test.”

The recent public school test-cheating scandals in Atlanta and Washington D.C. are insidious not only in their impact on their own communities, but also in feeding a broadly held misperception that urban school districts are beyond salvaging.

Exploring four dimensions of using tablets, such as the iPad, in educational settings, and examining how teachers can take students on a journey from consumption of media to curation, creation, and connection.