Laurie Troiano talked about the hard work she and her colleagues do. She and teachers from the North Bergen Federation of Teachers joined AFT President Randi Weingarten and UFT President Michael Mulgrew to deliver more than 100,000 petitions demanding an apology from Time Mag for negatively characterizing teachers. #TimeFail…
By John Mooney
Representative tells education panel that Superintendent Cami Anderson has not followed state rules for teacher evaluations
With the landmark teachers contract in Newark in its third and final year, prospects are not promising for such amicable agreement on the next contract.
The Newark Teachers Union has stepped up its complaints about how state-appointed Superintendent Cami Anderson has implemented the existing contract, taking its case to the Legislature this week and contending that she has failed to comply with state law pertaining to teacher evaluations.…
Read MoreTRENTON — Charter schools in many of the state’s most disadvantaged districts do not look much like the communities they serve, according to a study to be released today by public school advocates.
According to the report, the schools—concentrated in Camden, Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, Paterson, Plainfield, and Trenton—educate significantly smaller percentages of poor students, those from non-English speaking families, and special education students, than do the public school districts they serve.…
Read MoreAre one of more than 90,000 people who have signed our petition demanding that Time magazine apologize for calling teachers the “rotten apples” in our schools?
At 3 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, Oct. 30, AFTNJ will be joining AFT President Randi Weingarten, UFT President Michael Mulgrew along with educators, parents and allies to deliver the petitions to Time magazine’s headquarters in Manhattan.…
Read MoreBut committee chairman thinks changes more likely to come in administrative code rather than through the law
By John Mooney
The Legislature yesterday held a two-hour hearing on a package of recommendations for improving teacher preparation and induction, but it looks like the next steps will likely come more through administrative regulations than any new laws.…
Read MoreBy PATRICIA ALEX, Staff Writer, The Record
New Jersey Institute of Technology issued a formal statement on Monday questioning Kean University’s intentions to open another public architecture program in the state, saying the initiative was duplicative and costly.
The salvo came following an event at Kean’s Union campus on Saturday, where the university announced that it was launching the Michael Graves School of Architecture, pairing up with the famous designer to start a school that will grow to 500 students evenly divided between the stateside campus and one in Wenzhou, China.…
Read MoreThere is not a profession in this modern era that is legislated, regulated and mandated as closely as that of the public school educator. While there are laws governing other professions, those laws are developed and implemented with the voices of those in the profession front and center. That cannot be said of the laws and regulations governing today’s educational system.…
Read MoreExcluding teachers from policy-making is not only stupid, it’s dangerous.
By Gary Ravani
I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and also, generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field.” – Charter member of AFT Local 552 (c. 1938)
There have been many assertions made over time about the negative effects of teachers unions on student performance.…
Read MoreBy Patricia Alex, Staff Writer, The Record.
Kean University is launching an architecture school bearing the imprint of design guru Michael Graves, but the dean of the state’s premier public architecture program six miles away says the initiative is a waste of public money.
“The idea of having yet another program motivated by prestige or other considerations … it doesn’t make any sense,” said Urs P.…
Read MoreDecision says schools Superintendent Cami Anderson was premature in citing dismissal guidelines in state’s new tenure law
By John Mooney
Amid all the debate surrounding her tenure as state-appointed leader of New Jersey’s largest school district, Newark schools Superintendent Cami Anderson has taken special pride in being able to retain and reward exemplary teachers while removing the poor ones.…
Read MoreSweeney, Prieto say they mostly support Common Core and related testing, but predict big adjustments ahead for NJ schools
By John Mooney
With New Jersey deep into incorporating the Common Core State Standards and about to debut new online tests for its public schools, the state’s Legislature has been caught in the position of having little say at this point — but still talking and hearing plenty about it.…
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In 2012, I got my Ph.D. and left academia with no regrets. Like all decisions based on financial stability, it was not so much a decision as a reaction.
Academia, I had discovered, was not an industry in which one works for pay but one in which you must pay to work. New Ph.D.’s are expected to move around the country in temporary postdocs or visiting professor jobs until finding tenure-track positions — financially impossible for me as a mother of two – or stay where they are and work as adjuncts with no job security and an average wage of $2,700 per course.…
Read MoreBy Kelly Heyboer/FOR INSIDE JERSEY
BY LAST SPRING, Mary-Faith Cerasoli had had enough. She decided to go public with her secret.
The veteran teacher had a job teaching Italian and Spanish to students at Mercy College in Westchester and other colleges in New York City. But at night, she was sleeping in her car and buying groceries with food stamps.…
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