New Jersey Blogger Mel Katz Gives All The Reasons For Opt-Out To Superintendent!!!

My Response To SB Superintendent

At the last South Brunswick Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Dr. Jelling came to the podium for about 10 minutes to give a short speech on PARCC, testing, and opting-out. I recorded his short speech, which can be seen below (the link should bring you right to the video). After coming home from the meeting unsatisfied (to say the least) with a lot of what he said, I decided to go through and break down his main points.

Video of speech:

https://fbcdn-video-o-a.akamaihd.net/hvideo-ak-xap1/v/t42.1790-2/10833437_300365800173110_714274304_n.mp4?oh=d5fee5bf402d9f260da98f002098579a&oe=549F70A5&__gda__=1419734873_1ee4bff01d77124751885894ac85a37d

Breakdown of points:

“Something that we are going to administer to so many students across so many states.”

Common Core: Closing the Skills Gap or Expanding the Economic Reality Gap?

WagTheDog

As I reflect upon the numerous changes in education policy and reforms that are underway across our nation, surreal is the best word to describe how it feels to be an educator as 2014 comes to a close.

Wonder if I am the only educator expecting Morpheus to walk into my classroom any day now and say; “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

There is a huge disconect between the college and career readiness rhetoric of the ed reformers and the reality of our nation’s jobs outlook and employment trends that reveal a continuing shift away from manufacturing and to a service-based economy.

Many Common Core enthusiasts continue…

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Governor Markell, what are you doing the morning of January 7th?

Something is up the morning of January 7th.  I keep hearing this date.  Christina School District is having a board meeting on January 6th.  Certain FOIA requests have been postponed (one since October) until January 7th.  If I were a betting man, I would say Governor Jack Markell is going to make a big announcement the morning of January 7th concerning priority schools.

The DOE has gone ahead and set up a new potential leader hailing from the great state of New Jersey to oversee the priority schools.  And SHE comes from a big charter school chain.  The writing is on the wall people.  It has been since September 4th.  But if your mind is already made up Jack, did you think of this simple fact: Did you consult with special needs parents and IEP teams?  Uh-oh…did you know if you change kid’s academic placement it has to be approved by the IEP team?  Will they still be in the least restrictive environment?  You might want to check out what’s going on in York, PA before you make any hasty decisions Jack.  In the meantime, please tell your office to get rolling on the FOIA requests.

York City, Pennsylvania, Outrage!

Diane Ravitch's blog

Last Friday, a judge cleared the way to put the York City schools into receivership, meaning under state control. The Pennsylvania Department of Education previously announced its intention to hand over the entire school district to the for-profit charter chain Charter Schools of America.

Be it noted that today’s education “reformers” don’t much care for democracy. They would rather turn public schools over to a for-profit corporation that siphons off 20% in management fees and pays itself outlandish rental fees rather than trust parents and local citizens to do what’s best for their children.

Choice? There will be no “choice” for the families of York City. Their children will have to attend a charter school whose headquarters are in Florida. Yes, it is the death of local control and democracy in York City.

The news story says:

“State officials have said they would, if approved for a receivership, bring in…

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