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Star Ledger--Christie’s cap on superintendent salaries totally backfired, study says
To Gov. Chris Christie, the salaries seemed outrageous.
School superintendents across the state were getting paid big bucks to run school districts, with some salaries dwarfing the $175,000 he was making to run the entire state. So, Christie imposed a salary cap he said would save nearly $10 million and force school chiefs to face the harsh economic realities of 2011.
The result? Minimal reductions in district’s overall spending, all likely offset by the loss of talented and experienced school leaders, according to a new study.
Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com| Updated Dec 13, 11:51 AM; Posted Dec 13, 11:51
Chalkbeat--How the stress of state testing might make it harder for some students to show what they know
The annual ritual of state testing in elementary and middle schools often comes within an unwelcome side effect: jittery, stressed-out kids.
Now, a first-of-its-kind study documents some of what’s actually happening to students.
It found that students in one New Orleans charter network saw modest spikes in cortisol, a hormone caused by stress, leading up to state exams. And the students whose cortisol spiked most or crashed furthest did worse than predicted — suggesting that the test scores reflect not just what students know, but how they perform under pressure.
The five researchers behind the study call that a “stress bias.” The paper finds some evidence that students living in higher-crime, higher-poverty neighborhoods are most affected.
https://chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/12/13/stress-testing-research/
Matt Barnum| December 13, 2018
Education Week--Do Teachers Have Sway in School Decisions? Depends Who You Ask
Almost all school leaders think that teachers are involved in making important school decisions—but just over half of teachers would agree.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2018/12/teacher_influence_school_decisions.html
Madeline Will on December 13, 2018 12:01 AM
