This is an article from NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

NEWARK — In an historic reshuffling of the state’s largest school system, Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson Friday will announce a series of districtwide reforms that include closing seven failing schools and increasing charter school accountability.

The measures, which also call for an expansion of Newark’s elite magnet school system, are by far the most far-reaching — and potentially controversial — initiatives of Anderson’s eight-month tenure.

“It’s our responsibility to put kids in schools that put them on a pathway to college,” Anderson said, adding that the reforms will foster diversity among students with different socioeconomic backgrounds and levels of achievement.

“We can’t become a city where struggling students are isolated in some schools,” she said.

According to a list obtained by The Star-Ledger and corroborated by three district officials, the schools that will close are: Dayton Street, Martin Luther King, 18th Avenue, Miller Street and Burnet Street elementary schools, and the ninth grade academies at Barringer and West Side high schools.

Anderson would not confirm which schools are closing, but said the facilities were targeted, in part, because of declining enrollment and poor performance.

Except for Miller Street Elementary School, the others posted failing grades for most students on math and language tests, according to statewide results released Wednesday. At Martin Luther King, only 10 percent of seventh graders achieved minimum language proficiency on the statewide tests.

Anderson admitted the school closings will be controversial.

“I understand that schools are first community institutions,” she said.

Below is the test score lookup tool from the previously posted NJ.com article Despite aid cuts, N.J. students improved test scores in 2010-11 school year:

Online Database by Caspio


Click here to load this Caspio Online Database.

This is an article from NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

TRENTON — New Jersey’s public school students racked up slightly higher test scores in most grades in the 2010-11 school year, despite Gov. Chris Christie’s cutting about $1 billion in state aid to schools that year, according to standardized test results released today by the state Board of Education.

Students posted slightly higher test stores in math and language arts in most grades, from 3 through 8, and in high school. In science, however, a subject in which students are tested only in fourth and eighth grades, scores dropped.

Many schools experienced cuts in staff and other areas in 2010-11, due to the steep drop in state aid. But results of the NJASK tests, given in grade school, and the High School Proficiency Assessment showed most weathered the storm.

“The year that generated that cut, actually turned out to be a year where we had decent student (achievement),” said Acting Commissioner Christopher Cerf, cautioning “I don’t want to leave you with the impression that means we can cut more. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Christie, in fact, returned some of the money to schools the following year.

The state each year releases data from tests taken the previous spring, as a snapshot of how New Jersey’s students are learning. In high school, scores showed steady progress up. The percentage of students passing language arts rose from 94.3 in 2010 to 96.1 percent in 2011, and the math passing rate went from 82.8 to 83.6. A new high school biology test also showed improvement.

This is an article from the The Hunterdon Review, here is a link to the article:

TEWKSBURY TWP. – Think your property taxes are too high? State Sen. Mike Doherty, R-Hunterdon, says he has a solution.

As part of a tour that has taken him to municipalities throughout the state, Sen. Doherty came to Tewksbury Tuesday, Jan. 17 to pitch his controversial Fair School Funding Plan (FSF), legislation he maintains would increase school funding and lower property taxes for 85 percent of the state.

How? Currently, state education aid is calculated via a formula approved under former Gov. Jon Corzine as part of his School Funding Reform Act. The formula calculates aid per student by several designations, including whether a student receives free or reduced school lunches or speaks another language at home.

Sen. Doherty’s proposal would do away with the formula altogether, and instead give each New Jersey student equal state funding, at $7,481 per child. The legislation would increase aid to suburban and rural districts while drastically reducing funds currently reserved for urban schools in so-called Abbott districts, including Newark, Camden and Asbury Park.

Under existing regulations, “It’s a very unequal distribution,” said the senator Tuesday. By his calculations, using figures he said came from the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Education and the Office of Legislative Services, the average Tewksbury resident contributes 14 times as much to the income tax fund as the average resident in urban Asbury Park, while Asbury Park receives 29 times more in state education aid.

This is an opinion piece from the Asbury Park Press, here is a link to the article:

IRVINGTON — Gov. Chris Christie told an inner-city audience Thursday he has high hopes his education reform agenda will boost overall student performance but conceded challenges remain in working with children from broken and dysfunctional homes.

“Kids who are not responding (and) don’t have the hunger to learn, as governor I can’t do anything about the parents. I can’t pretend I can go into every home and say, ‘Why don’t you care about your child learning?’ ” Christie said. “I don’t have any business going into somebody’s home and judging them. I don’t think they’d listen to me anyway.”

Christie went on to tout ideas on overhauling teacher tenure and increasing school choice during his town hall visit to the Christian Love Baptist Church.

Still, Christie said it will be difficult to turn around the failure of children where problems can be traced to parents who aren’t in the picture — because of working multiple jobs or being jailed or being deceased, he said.

“There are going to be a certain percentage of children (failing) because of their environment because their parents either don’t care or aren’t present,” the Republican governor said. “My problem is all those things are used as excuses for not getting at one of the things we know can be fixed, which is to make sure we have a quality teacher in front of the classroom.”

The event was held in the old church and was packed to capacity, with perhaps close to 500 people in the main worship area and a basement auxiliary room.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press, here is a link to the article:

VOORHEES — A vocal foe of a planned charter school in Cherry Hill got under Gov. Chris Christie’s skin during a town hall meeting here Wednesday.

About an hour into a session that had been cordial and laced with applause, Cherry Hill resident Alan Erlich interrupted Christie as the governor was answering a question about the school, Regis Academy. Emotions quickly escalated.

“I don’t have a solution for every problem,” Christie said to Erlich immediately after the interruption. “You had an opportunity to speak before. Here’s the bottom line: I don’t have a solution for everything.”

But after Erlich charged the charter school’s approval was a favor for a Christie supporter, the governor denied the claim.

“Who are you talking about?” asked Christie, who went on to say he does not know Amir Khan, a pastor who is organizing the school at a church complex in the Ashland area. “I haven’t given one friend a charter school.”

After the heated exchange with Erlich, Christie briefly turned back to the woman who had questioned him and told her he’d get back to her in a second. He then continued his ire toward Erlich.

“It’s guys like you who are rude and yell out in the middle when I’m trying to answer this woman’s question that does not allow for civil discourse in this state,” the governor said, drawing applause from some audience members.

This is an opinion piece from NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie said he can institute an across-the-board 10 percent income tax cut and still increase state aid to education.

As part of a day-long victory lap Wednesday to promote the ideas unveiled one day earlier in his State of the State address, the Republican governor told a town hall audience in Vorhees he would phase-in the cut over three years at a cost of $300 million per year.

“The fact is there’s a lot of waste in government to be ferreted out over time,” he told hundreds of people in the atrium of a shopping mall, some perched over a balcony to get a good look. “I would tell you we’ll be able to do that not only without cutting aid to education but with increasing aid to education.”

The promise is a direct reaction to Democrats in control the Legislature who pounced on Christie’s income tax plan, calling it rhetoric aimed at boosting the governor’s national profile. They labeled it a gift to the wealthy that would decimate revenues so much that schools would suffer.

“Don’t let the Democrats who are opposing this fool you into thinking you have to make a choice between the two,” he said.

Christie, who said more details about how he’ll slash state spending would come in his Feb. 21 budget address, took his message of responsibly reducing the size of government around the state and over the airwaves. The whirlwind day started at 7 a.m.

This is an opinion piece from the Asbury Park Press, here is a link to the article:

Gov. Chris Christie has declared war on the public school system and the teachers who work there.

First, he started his propaganda that the teachers were responsible for the economic crisis in the state. As absurd as this is, many people chose to believe it. Why? Because when things get complicated and scary, people want to find an easy target for all of their angst, anger and hardship.

The governor was eager to offer up the teachers as this target. He cut school aid and proclaimed that these cuts would not result in any loss of teaching jobs, nor affect the quality of education.

These claims were patently absurd, yet many believed. The laying off of teachers began immediately, and many students suffered a decline in their educational programs.

The governor declares that teachers are responsible for poor academic performance. This is also absurd.

It is not a coincidence that the majority of failing schools are in inner cities and/or economically deprived areas. If only teachers could cure all the ills of society — addiction, crumbling infrastructure, crime, poverty, families in crisis — they surely would.

Despite the research to the contrary, the governor has declared charter schools to be the answer. Beware the red herring. The vilification of teachers serves to keep the public from asking the real questions and demanding answers.

What happens to the millions in lottery sales? The economic crisis in this state was caused by the downturn in the economy and the failure of government to be good stewards.

This is an article from NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

Just as New Jersey prepares to revamp its tenure laws, an exhaustive new study on teacher quality indicates that Gov. Chris Christie is on the right track.

The study’s conclusion is simple: Getting rid of the worst teachers, and holding onto the good ones, leads to lifetime benefits for their students. And test scores are a tremendously helpful tool in helping to evaluate teacher performance.

The study, by a team of economists at Harvard and Columbia universities, tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years. When they started the study, the economist expected to find that judging teachers in part on test scores was a big mistake.

But they found just the opposite, that tests are telling. Understand that it’s not a simple matter of crediting teachers whose kids score the highest. That would reward a lazy teacher who is lucky enough to have classrooms full of attentive kids with supportive families, and punish a heroic teachers who works with the state’s poorest kids.

Instead, the study measured the impact a teacher had on a classroom full of kids, taking into account where they began. So a teacher who helps poor kids read more effectively gets credit, even if the students remain behind grade level. It’s known as “value-added ratings” and several school districts across the country have begun using it in teacher evaluations.

No one wants to rely exclusively on test scores. There is no substitute for classroom visits.

This is an opinion piece from NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

New Jersey is about to take a giant step toward opening public schools to profit-making management companies, and the effort has a most unlikely supporter — the New Jersey Education Association.

In a move that displays either its weakness or cynicism — or both — the state’s largest teachers’ union has joined forces with archenemy Gov. Chris Christie and the powerful Camden County Democratic machine of George Norcross to endorse the “Urban Hope Act,” which would allow private companies to build and manage public schools using taxpayer money.

“We have always supported public school choice,’’ said Ginger Gold Schnitzer, the NJEA’s chief lobbyist.

Schnitzer’s words sharply contrast with previous comments from union leaders who condemned the same bill the organization now endorses. In June, for example, NJEA President Barbara Keshishian released a statement that read:

“The proposal is nothing more than an attempt to walk away from the state’s obligation to provide a thorough and efficient education to every student by handing over our students and our tax dollars to private companies.”

The union’s reversal of position came after the bill was amended to guarantee bargaining and tenure rights for teachers in privately managed schools — as many as 12 so-called “renaissance schools” slated for Newark, Camden and Trenton.

But the NJEA endorsed the proposed law while it still contained a provision that would require direct public financing of the construction of schools managed by private firms along with an exemption from competitive bidding laws.