Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

10-9-18 Education in the News

NJ Spotlight--Building a Better Future One Building Project at a Time

YouthBuild gives participants a place to master skills, earn a GED, and think beyond high school

New Jersey residents between the ages of 16 and 24 who left high school before finishing aren’t necessarily out of luck or out of the running. YouthBuild can help some of them earn a degree and master pre-apprentice construction industry skills — including OSHA and CPR/first aid training — thanks to its on-the-job building projects.

YouthBuild, which is funded by public and nonprofit money, held an emotional graduation ceremony yesterday.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18/10/08/building-a-better-future-one-building-project-at-a-time/

  NJTV News Online | October 9, 2018

 

The Record--Public can weigh in on Gov. Phil Murphy plan to cut standardized testing in high schools

Starting Friday, the public will get to comment on Gov. Phil Murphy's plan to reduce the amount of standardized testing in state high schools.

Under the proposal, which got preliminary approval by the state Board of Education last week, high school students will take four state exams instead of six and the state will keep flexible graduation paths until 2025.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2018/10/09/public-can-weigh-murphys-plan-cut-number-parcc-tests/1566931002/

Hannan Adely, North Jersey Record Published 7:30 a.m. ET Oct. 9, 2018

 

 

Philadelphia Inquirer--Advocates worry: Is Gov. Murphy imposing ‘stealth moratorium’ on N.J. charter schools?

Gov. Murphy wanted a "timeout" for New Jersey charter schools after years of growth under his predecessor, Chris Christie.

http://www2.philly.com/education/new-jersey-governor-phil-murphy-charter-schools-time-out-20181009.html

Maddie Hanna | @maddiehanna | mhanna@phillynews.com| October 8, 2018

 

Education Week--How to Make Reading Relevant: Bring Job-Specific Texts Into Class

How news articles and technical manuals might help career-technical students master complex texts

Larissa VanderZee's students are all going on to work with patients, not patents—but that doesn't mean they're getting out of her classes without a hefty dose of reading. Far from it.

As they go about their clinical rotations, her students read news articles from The New York Times and The Atlantic about issues facing elderly patients. Later, she will task them with researching a health profession like nursing or being an EMT, compiling an annotated bibliography, and weighing the strength of online and print sources.

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/09/26/how-to-make-reading-relevant-bring-job-specific.html

Stephen Sawchuk| September 25, 2018

 

The Atlantic--Civics Education Helps Create Young Voters and Activists

Youth voter turnout is notoriously low in the U.S., especially when social-studies classes are notably absent.

It’s widely known that young adults in the United States tend to vote at lower rates than older Americans, but it’s easy to gloss over just how stunning the numbers really are—especially at a time of such intense political polarization and divisiveness. Only half of eligible adults between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in the 2016 presidential election that sent Donald Trump to the White House. During the 2014 midterm elections two years earlier, the youth-voter-turnout rate was just 20 percent, the lowest ever recorded in history, according to an analysis of Census data.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/10/civics-education-helps-form-young-voters-and-activists/572299/

Alia Wong| Oct 5, 2018