NJ Spotlight--Taking a Closer Look at New Jersey DOE School Performance Reports
NJ Spotlight education writer John Mooney explains what’s new and why it matters for the latest crop of school report cards
The state Department of Education has posted online the latest School Performance Reports for the 2015-2016 school year, and this time out they are loaded with even more information, such as ratings of student and teacher attendance. That includes a chart indicating chronic absenteeism.
NJTV News Online | April 12, 2017
The Nation--How School Start Times Affect High-School Athletics
Catching more sleep could help student-athletes catch more touchdowns, but some still argue sports schedules are a reason against moving back the first bell.
On March 13, the board of education in Sag Harbor, New York, a wealthy town on the eastern end of Long Island, sat down to discuss what time local schools should start. The principal question in front of the board was simple: Should Pierson Middle-High School, which is located in Suffolk County, New York, maintain its 7:35 a.m. start time or push back the opening bell to allow students more sleep in the morning?
Later start times have long been a pet cause for the board member Susan Lamontagne, a health advocate and Sag Harbor parent. In 2013, Lamontagne founded the Long Island chapter of Start School Later, a national organization that lobbies school districts to alter their schedules. A year later, she led a successful effort to push back start times at Pierson by 10 minutes. Unsatisfied with that modest change, she ran for the board in 2016 promising even later bells.
Alex Putterman| April 12, 2017
Education Week--Curriculum 'Playlists': A Take on Personalized Learning
Some schools are betting on the curriculum playlists to customize students' learning, but the technology is neither cheap nor proven
Back in 2009, Joel Rose and his team used spreadsheets to manually produce customized "playlists" for 70 New York City middle school students each day. The goal was to always give each child the best possible content, delivered in the optimal manner, at the best possible time.
Figuring out how to make that happen took 11 hours every night.
Now, Rose's New York-based nonprofit organization, New Classrooms, performs those same functions each day for 11,000 students in 38 district, charter, and independent schools spread across 10 states and the District of Columbia.
By Benjamin Herold |March 28, 2017