Jersey Jazzman

• An Open Letter to NJ Sen. Ruiz, re: Teacher Evaluation and Test Scores September 4, 2018
  Tuesday, September 4, 2018The Honorable M. Teresa RuizThe New Jersey SenateTrenton, NJDear Senator Ruiz,As thousands of New Jersey teachers are heading back to school this week, this is an excellent time to address your recent comments about changes Governor Murphy's administration has made to state rules regarding the use of test scores in teacher evaluations.As […]
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• SGPs: Still Biased, Still Inappropriate To Use For Teacher Evaluation July 22, 2018
  Let's suppose you and I get jobs digging holes. Let's suppose we get to keep our jobs based on how well we dig relative to each other.It should be simple to determine who digs more: all our boss has to do is measure how far down our holes go. It turns out I'm much better […]
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• The PARCC, Phil Murphy, and Some Common Sense July 16, 2018
  Miss me?I'll tell you what I've been up to soon, I promise. I'm actually still in the middle of it... but I've been reading and hearing a lot of stuff about education policy lately, and I've decided I can't just sit back -- even if my time is really at a premium these days -- […]
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• What Do We Teach In America's Schools? "Hey, Honey, Sit Down and Shut Up!" May 1, 2018
  America, it's time to play Spot The Pattern!™First, Chicago (all emphases mine):Earlier this month, we posted a story about discipline practices inside Noble Network of Charter Schools, which educates approximately one out of 10 high school students in Chicago. One former teacher quoted in the piece described some of the schools’ policies as “dehumanizing.” [...]  Through the teacher, […]
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• Don't Blame Teachers For School Underfunding: A Data Tale From Jersey City April 30, 2018
  The animosity between NJ Senate President Steve Sweeney and the NJEA, New Jersey's largest teachers union, is already well-known. Add to that the rivalry between Sweeney and Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop, and Sweeney's desire to amend the state's school funding system... well, Sweeney's latest dig at Jersey City's teachers and board of education really shouldn't have […]
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• The Facts About NJ Charter Schools, Part III: Segregation By English Proficiency March 19, 2018
  This week, I'm going into detail about a new report on New Jersey's charter schools I wrote with Julia Sass Rubin. In the last post, I showed conclusively that the charters enroll proportionally fewer special education students. In addition, the classified students charters do enroll tend to have less costly learning disabilities. This puts both […]
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• The Facts About NJ Charter Schools, Part II: Segregation By Special Education Need March 17, 2018
  In this series of posts, I'm breaking down a new report by myself and Julia Sass Rubin on New Jersey's charter schools. State data shows one incontrovertible truth:New Jersey's charter schools enroll far fewer students proportionally who have learning disabilities, or who are Limited English Proficient, when compared to their hosting districts.Here's a graph that […]
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• The Facts About NJ Charter Schools, Part I: Prelude March 15, 2018
  This is long overdue:New Jersey's new governor will consider changes to the state's charter school law, potentially slowing the expansion of controversial, yet in-demand schools championed by former Gov. Chris Christie. The state on Friday announced a "comprehensive review" of its charter school law, fulfilling one of Gov. Phil Murphy's campaign promises after an era of rapid school […]
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• Betsy DeVos's Florida Fantasy March 13, 2018
  Betsy DeVos's incoherent mess of a interview with Leslie Stahl (who I thought did a good job) on 60 Minutes Sunday night has got to be one of the most embarrassing performances by a sitting cabinet member in modern times.I'm not sure my stomach could take a complete debunking of all of DeVos's nonsense. But I […]
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• Things Economists Should Start Saying About Education Research March 5, 2018
  If there's one thing I find helpful about Jonathan Chait's work, it's that every now and then he gives us a "State Of The Reformy" piece that serves as a useful encapsulation of the current arguments among the neoliberal set for education "reform."Chait's piece this time is especially notable because it's an explicit attempt to […]
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