NJ Spotlight--On the Record with Arcelio Aponte, New President of State Board of Ed
In his second stint in the top slot, look for Aponte to advocate for PARCC, push to lift state controls on Newark and Jersey City
Arcelio Aponte is hardly new to his “new” position as president of the New Jersey state Board of Education. Elected earlier this month, this is his second stint at the helm of the board that oversees state education policy and regulation. He previously served as president from 2011-2013.
But his post this time comes with a little drama; Aponte replaces previous board president Mark Biedron after the latter had an apparent falling out with Gov. Chris Christie. Now the board has a new president and six new board members, one of Christie’s last and maybe more lasting actions in education policy.
John Mooney | July 26, 2017
NJ Spotlight--Running Mates: Oliver is Murphy’s Pick, Rendo Likely as Guadagno’s
Former Assembly Speaker brings political experience to Democratic gubernatorial ticket, Cuban-born Republican mayor seen as appealing to Hispanic voters
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy will announce former Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver as his running mate at a news conference today.
Murphy is believed to have chosen Assemblywoman Oliver as his candidate for lieutenant governor because he wanted a seasoned politician; Oliver was Speaker of the Assembly from 2010 to 2014. And, reports Michael Aron of NJTV News, “Her selection works on a number of levels: she’s a woman and an African-American from a county with a substantial African-American population … and her selection is aimed in part at pleasing Essex County party leaders, who were feeling left out of the power positions in a Murphy government scenario.”
NJTV News Online | July 26, 2017
The Atlantic--The Collateral Damage of Testing Pressure
A new study shows that rigorous accountability systems may be pushing schools to place the lowest-performing teachers in the youngest grades.
Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade are often free of the high-stakes testing common in later grades—but those years are still high-stakes for students’ learning and development.
That means it’s a big problem when schools encourage their least effective teachers to work with their youngest students. And a new study says that the pressure of school accountability systems may be encouraging exactly that.
“Evidence on the importance of early-grades learning for later-life outcomes suggests that a system that pushes schools to concentrate ineffective teachers in the earliest grades could have serious unintended consequences,” write Jason Grissom of Vanderbilt and Demetra Kalogrides and Susanna Loeb of Stanford, the authors of the study.
Matt Barnum| Jul 25, 2017
Education Week--Social-Emotional-Learning Researchers Gather Input From Educators
Real-world advice for research agenda
In the increasingly popular fields of student engagement, social-emotional learning, and school climate, educators and researchers sometimes feel like they are working in totally different worlds.
While researchers tout long-term studies that show economic and academic benefits of such efforts, teachers say they sometimes struggle to apply the findings in classrooms.
And while many education leaders and policymakers espouse great enthusiasm for teaching students how to learn through problems and to resolve conflicts, they sometimes fail to see the nuance and limitations in existing research. That means some who buy in to programs pitched as silver bullets may end up without meaningful solutions.
So, when a national organization set out to craft a research agenda for what it calls social, emotional, and academic development of students—which encompasses issues related to students' mindsets, relationships, and engagement in the classroom—organizers sought to build a bridge between the two worlds, inviting both educators and scientists to the table to discuss what excites them, what challenges them, and what should come next.
Evie Blad|July 18, 2017