Tuesday, May 14, 2013
State delays go-ahead amid questions about legality, viability of virtual classrooms for kids
The nation’s largest online education company, K12 Inc., is once again registering kids and offering jobs to teachers for the debut of New Jersey’s first virtual charter school – all without knowing if the school will even open. The New Jersey Virtual Academy Charter School was one of two applications given preliminary approval by the state Department of Education two years ago. But it was forced into a delay last summer, when state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf wouldn’t grant the final charter amid ongoing questions – legal and otherwise – about the school’s merits and viability. Almost a year later, answers to those questions remain hotly debated, including in the courts, and K12 Inc. is taking a wait-and-see approach to what Cerf …
Friday, April 26, 2013
Bill sponsor hopes to build consensus before Legislature tackles NJ's 18-year-old charter law
The outlines of a new charter school bill are taking shape, with a draft being circulated by Assembly Democrats that would add tighter controls on new charters and expand the number of organizations approving and overseeing the schools. State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), chair of the Assembly’s education committee, hascompleted a draft that would require local voters to approve new charter schools and would add up to three “reviewers” from colleges and universities. The draft would also restructure parts of the application process for charter schools and place new requirements on them to annually report and post their enrollment breakdowns and budgets. Diegnan said yesterday that he expected still more changes to come …
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Schools are seeking permission to open in fall 2014.
- SCHOOLS
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Thursday, April 4
Nearly 40 applications were filed this week to launch new charter schools, including two in Bergen County, according to a report on NJSpotlight.com. The two Bergen schools are seeking permission to open in Bergenfield and Hackensack, the report said. The proposed Edessa Charter School would draw students from New Milford, Dumont, Paramus, Bergenfield, River Edge and Oradell, according to the state education department. It would focus on 60 K-2 students, but was projected to grow to 120 K-5 students. An Englewood woman is seeking to open the Global Academy Charter School, planned in Hackensack. It would initialy include 115 students in 7th through 10th grade and was projected to expand to 12th graders, serving 210 students in all. "The …
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Democratic lawmakers in state Assembly, Senate both drafting new legislation
Talk of revising the state’s charter-school law is picking up again, with one major player now saying that he plans to have a bill ready by spring or early summer. State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly’s education committee, said this week that he has sent the broad outline of a bill to the Office of Legislative Services. Provisions include adding organizations able to approve new schools and tightening accountability for existing ones. “It will be start to finish,” Diegnan said, “covering the whole life of a charter school.” Diegnan’s progress on his Assembly bill comes as talks continue in the Senate regarding a bill being crafted by state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex). Read more at NJSpotlight.com NJ …
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
According to the administration, making it more difficult for charter teachers to earn tenure gives the schools themselves "more flexibility"
Soon after proposing that certification rules for new charter school teachers should be eased, the Christie administration is moving to toughen what it takes those teachers to get and keep tenure. In a proposal posted on the New Jersey Register this month, the administration has suggested that new teachers at charter schools would receive tenure protections after five years -- a year more than the current four years for district teachers. In addition, they would be subject to a different due process procedure in case of tenure charges, one without the arbitration process newly put in place for district teachers. Instead, the state commissioner would continue to have final say on appeals, short of the courts. The proposal also specifies …
Monday, December 10, 2012
Study's press release misrepresents findings, op-ed argues.
- OPINION
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Monday, December 10, 2012
Last week, with much fanfare, a study comparing standardized test scores of New Jersey’s charter school students to those of their public school peers was released by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO). As a professor of public policy, a supporter of public education, and a parent of a charter school student, I have four questions that I would like to ask the authors. Question #1: Why does the CREDO press release misrepresent the study’s findings? The CREDO press release claimed that “New Jersey charter public schools significantly outperform their district school peers.” However, this is not even remotely what the CREDO study found. First, the CREDO study looked at only about half of New Jersey’s charter schools (46 …
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Newark charters lift statewide averages, while advantages not necessarily shown elsewhere
New Jersey’s ongoing debate about whether traditional public schools or charters do a better job educating students got some provocative new data yesterday, courtesy of a study from Stanford University that came down on the side of the charters -- particularly in Newark's embattled school district. According to Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), charter school students overall made larger learning gains than their peers in traditional schools on state tests from 2007-2011. What's more, a third of the charters showed higher achievement levels than the other public schools in their districts, with a fifth doing significantly worse, the report said. But the details of the long-awaited report also present a more …
Monday, September 10, 2012
Hearings set to define virtual schools as they evolve and fuel debate in Garden State
Online education in charter schools -- in all its different and controversial forms -- will get the first of what could be several Statehouse hearings this week, as legislators start to sort out what is growing to be one of the state’s more contentious issues. The Joint Committee on the Public Schools will host the hearing on Wednesday morning, at 11 a.m., with presentations by three national proponents of online education. The three are Susan Patrick of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning; Michael Horn of the Education of Innosight Institute; and Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education reform. The new co-chairman of the joint committee, state Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D-Bergen), said she wants the first hearing to …
Friday, August 31, 2012
Appeals court dismisses NJEA bid to block schools, but union says it will pursue its case
New Jersey’s experiment with "hybrid" online charter schools has started, even while the legal challenge from the state teachers' union is also moving ahead. The first of two hybrid charters, which mix both traditional teaching and online tools, opened in Newark this week -- with the 80 sixth graders at Merit Preparatory Charter School receiving their Apple laptops. The second hybrid, the Newark Preparatory Charter School, will open this coming Thursday. It's based on the same model: students attend school every day but receive much of their instruction online. But that doesn’t mean the legal battle over hybrids is over. The New Jersey Education Association had sought to block the schools from opening outright, filing a challenge last week…
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
With legislation to overhaul law going slow -- for now -- state BOE will consider plan to expand state’s role with charter schools
The Christie administration is moving ahead with new regulations for charter schools, jumping ahead of the Legislature and its plans to take up the issue -- and maybe a whole new law -- in the fall. The state Board of Education will hear on Wednesday the latest version of the administration’s proposed regulations that have come under criticism for expanding the size and scope of charters in the state. The proposal had been going before the board last month and was delayed for further review. In that time, the new version released yesterday does make changes that appeared to address some of the criticism. For one, it takes out its main reference to online charter schools, one of the primary targets of concern. However, the new regulations …
Diane Schwarz
1:22 pm on Friday, April 5, 2013
Would you say Charter schools were a pretty good business? more ›