Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

12-20-18 Education in the News

Star Ledger--Wasted space in schools could be used to run daycares under new state proposal

Legislators introduced a measure this week to allow public school districts to operate daycare centers.

State lawmakers this week introduced a proposal to allow local school districts to operate daycare centers in vacant space in an attempt to head off a pending deadline to close such facilities.

https://www.nj.com/burlington/2018/12/wasted-space-in-schools-could-be-used-to-run-daycares-under-new-state-proposal.html

Bill Duhart | For NJ.com| Updated Dec 19, 8:31 PM; Posted Dec 19, 7:40 PM

 

 

Chalkbeat--Could the forces that fought the Common Core bring down personalized learning?

Major funders and the federal education department are promoting the idea.

Teachers are wary. Parents are perplexed.

Criticism is coming from both the political left and right.

It’s not the Common Core, though a few years ago, it would have been. Now, we’re talking about technology-based personalized learning, the latest, hottest, and best-funded idea to dominate the conversation about American schools.

The backlash to the Common Core standards, and their associated tests, was enough to get them revised or replaced in some states. Today, some teachers, political conservatives, and parents are beginning to mobilize against personalized learning, too. And in some cases, the very same people are taking up the fight.

https://chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/12/19/common-core-personalized-learning-backlash/

Matt Barnum| December 19, 2018  

 

The Atlantic--Trump’s School-Safety Commission’s Strange Focus on Discipline

The administration wants to keep schools safe by ditching rules meant to prevent racial bias in school discipline.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s school-safety commission, which was established following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, released its much-anticipated recommendations “to advance safety” in schools, including one that would scrap a federal policy urging schools not to punish minority students at a higher rate than white students.

The commission’s recommendation to roll back the Obama administration’s school-discipline guidance does not come as a surprise. Republicans have decried the policy as government overreach since it was released in 2014. The policy advocated “constructive approaches” to school discipline, such as victim-offender mediation, as opposed to harsher penalties such as suspensions or expulsions.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/trumps-school-safety-commissions-strange-focus-on-discipline/578455/

Adam Harris| Dec 18, 2018