NJ Spotlight--What’s Going to Replace PARCC? It’s Complicated
State Board of Education debates value of standardized testing, draws no conclusions. Parents, educators weigh in
The debate over what’s next after PARCC for New Jersey schools is not over.
A month after the Murphy administration proposed to scale back — and rename —the state’s standardized testing next school year, New Jersey’s State Board of Education yesterday spent close to three hours discussing the value of state testing and how much is enough.
Little was resolved at the end of the Socratic debate, with a split board vowing to take up the discussion anew in September. Senate leaders are promising to weigh in as well, so look for State House hearings too.
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18/08/01/whats-going-to-replace-parcc-its-complicated/
John Mooney | August 2, 2018
Star Ledger--34 staffers just got axed by this state agency. But why?
Thirty four employees were dismissed from the state Department of Education earlier this month in a controversial move that's prompted questions about the department's leadership.
The employees, including three who retired when they learned they would be let go, were dismissed as part of a larger reorganization of the agency, Department of Education spokesman Michael Yaple said Wednesday.
Adam Clark| Updated 7:33 AM; Posted 7:30 AM
Asbury Park Press--NJ school aid cuts will 'decimate' Shore districts for years, superintendents say
Raising taxes. Fewer teachers. Program cuts. All will be considered by dozens of Jersey Shore school districts trying to account for big losses in state school aid — a financial hit that will sock schools in the fall and continue to wallop them well into the next decade.
Wednesday was the deadline for districts to file new budget plans for the 2018-19 school year, the first in a planned seven-year series of cuts aimed at districts considered "overfunded" by the state, many of them in Ocean and Monmouth counties. Reliance on reserves will soften the blow for many, but school officials said that tack will have less utility beyond the next school year, necessitating more drastic measures.
Amanda Oglesby, Asbury Park Press Published 5:00 a.m. ET Aug. 2, 2018
NY Times--The Information on School Websites Is Not as Safe as You Think
The home page of Pinellas County Schools in Florida is brimming with information for families, students, staff members and the public: an easy-to-use dashboard of news, shortcuts and links to the district’s Facebook page, Twitter feed and YouTube channel.
But Pinellas’s home page has been supplying information to another audience, an unseen one, as well this year. An array of tracking scripts were embedded in the site, designed to install snippets of computer code into the browsers of anyone clicking on it, to report their visits or track their movements as they traveled around the web.
E.K. Moore| Aug. 2, 2018
Education Week--We All Need to Get Smarter About Testing
Assessment literacy is a low-cost solution to improving America’s public schools
There are several big-budget fixes we could make to improve America’s schools. We could substantially reduce the number of students each teacher must teach. Similarly, we could boost the talent level in our teaching force by seriously increasing teachers’ salaries to attract our brightest graduates. Sadly, both of these suggestions cost more money than our nation is currently willing to expend.
There is, however, a far less costly strategy already available and ready to be installed: assessment literacy.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/07/31/we-all-need-to-get-smarter-about.html
W. James Popham| July 31, 2018