NJ Spotlight--Agenda: New Charter School Regulations Finally Unveiled
State board to take first look at Christie’s deregulation proposal; NJ Teacher of Year also to be announced
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016
Time: 10 a.m.
Where: New Jersey Department of Education, 1st-floor conference room, 100 River View Plaza, Trenton
Charter schools, unregulated: Gov. Chris Christie in a speech in May pledged he would move to provide more flexibility for the state’s charter schools. Five months later, the state board will finally see the administration’s proposals on Wednesday, a mix of both significant and technical amendments. The board will also announce the annual award of the New Jersey Teacher of the Year, a selection from 21 county award winners. And this will be the first formal meeting for the state’s new interim education commissioner, Kimberley Harrington, who last month replaced outgoing commissioner David Hespe.
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/16/10/03/agenda-new-charter-school-regulations-finally-unveiled/
John Mooney | October 4, 2016
Star Ledger--N.J. school district to be 1st in state to use town-wide literacy app
ENGLEWOOD — A school district in North Jersey will pay for an app that officials hope will allow kids to start learning at an earlier age.
Robert Kravitz, superintendent at Englewood Public School District, is planning on providing an app called, "Footsteps2Brilliance" for Englewood residents, with a launch in January.
Anyone who lives in Englewood will be able to download the app with a web address that the district will provide, he said.
It will be free to users and offers tutorials to teach young kids, up to the third grade, basic lessons, such as phonics and sight words. The program will cost the district $40,000 a year, Kravitz said.
Ilene Rosenthal, co-founder and CEO of the app company, said the app has been shared in about 50 school districts throughout the country, but that Englewood was the first school district in New Jersey to do so.
The app was also part of the Clinton Global Initiative, Rosenthal said. CGI had its final annual meeting last month.
Sara Jerde | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com| October 03, 2016 at 12:43 PM
Philadelphia Inquirer--State weighing plan to raze, rebuild Camden High
The state Schools Development Authority is considering demolishing Camden High School and replacing it with a new building - a project that would cost an estimated $133 million.
The New Jersey Schools Development Authority is to vote Wednesday on a proposal to demolish Camden High School and replace it with a new building - a project that would cost an estimated $133 million.
If the plan is approved at the SDA's regular meeting in Trenton, the state will oversee a razing of the building known as the "Castle on the Hill," including the tower that defines the school's silhouette.
Plans to upgrade the century-old building have been delayed for more than eight years, and in the past, officials indicated that the tower would be preserved. But according to the proposal before the SDA, studies have determined that a complete renovation of the facility would be cost-prohibitive.
Preserving the tower while building new construction around it would cost at least $200 million, said Paymon Rouhanifard, superintendent of the state-run district.
Rouhanifard said the new building will have a tower. "We want to honor the legacy of that," he said.
The funding also would create four independent learning communities that will operate within the traditional public school, such as vocational programs. The completed building would have room for 1,200 students, according to the proposal before the SDA. About 700 students currently attend.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20161004_State_weighing_plan_to_raze__rebuild_Camden_High.html
Allison Steele, Staff Writer|Updated: October 4, 2016 — 1:07 AM EDT
NY Times-- Protest Started by Colin Kaepernick Spreads to High School Students
Aurora Central High School football players in Colorado went down on one knee in a sign of protest while the national anthem was being played before a game on Saturday. Credit Nick Cote for The New York Times
AURORA, Colo. — Vicqari Horton dropped a knee to the grass. The varsity choir piped out “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And in the bleachers at a sun-soaked football stadium here on Saturday, parents clenched their teeth in anger or raised their fists in support.
“You can’t continue to slap people in the face and not expect them to stand up,” said Mr. Horton, a junior tight end at Aurora Central High School who is black and began kneeling during the national anthem at games in mid-September. “When Kaepernick kneeled, he gave us an outlet. He gave us something to do.”
In the weeks since Colin Kaepernick, a San Francisco 49ers quarterback, took a knee during the national anthem — a protest against racial injustice — he has been discussed by President Obama, has been derided by Donald J. Trump and has helped to intensify an already roiling national debate about race, the police and the definition of patriotism.
He has also pushed that conversation onto a quintessential American stage: the high school football field.
By JULIE TURKEWITZ| OCT. 3, 2016
Education Week--Hunt Is On for Clues to Students' Test-Taking Processes
Studies to yield fuller picture of learning process
Large-scale standardized tests have become a staple of school accountability, but they don't give teachers much information to improve students' learning strategies in the classroom.
That's changing, as researchers on some of the leading national and international assessments work to pull more data about students' learning strategies and skills from summative tests.
"It's one thing to know the answer to a question, but it's another to get together information about the process a student goes through to get to that answer," said Peggy G. Carr, the acting commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, the congressionally mandated tests meant to take a national pulse on student achievement.
The upcoming NAEP in mathematics, reading, and writing for grades 4 and 8, for example, will get a better picture of how teachers can support learning in the classroom. NAEP joins the Program for International Student Assessment, international adult literacy tests, and other testing programs that are using new technology to squeeze more useful information out of standardized tests.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/10/05/hunt-is-on-for-clues-to-students.html
By Sarah D. Sparks| October 4, 2016