The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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Ridgewood NJ, Every year during the 4th of July parade in Ridgewood, NJ local schools compete to have the best float in the parade. This year, Travell Elementary has a connected component to its float, a free AppStore app for your iPhone or iPad.
Continue reading Travell Elementary Has An App for the Ridgewood 4th of July Parade
The Ridgewood News Superintendent’s Corner June 2019 by Daniel Fishbein, Ed.D.
Congratulations to the Class of 2019!
The following column appeared in The Ridgewood News on June 21, 2019.
On Thursday, June 20, Ridgewood High School graduated the Class of 2019. Following are the superintendent’s remarks at the commencement ceremony.
Continue reading Happy Summer! Read Dr. Fishbein’s remarks to the RHS Class of 2019 at graduation
Photo courtesy of Steve Kim
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Ridgewood NJ, at the Monday Ridgewood Board of Education meeting The proposed extra credit policy was reviewed .
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Ridgewood NJ, on Wednesday, May 29th, musicians from the Ridgewood High School Orchestra and Percussion Ensemble performed chamber works by Haydn, Dvorak, Smetana, Zivkovic, and more. The performance was followed by a short tour of the iconic Center.
The James Rose Center for Landscape Architectural Research and Design offered a special thanks for the Ridgewood High School Students who helped make Strings and Sticks a success! Check out our website to see a short clip of a quartette perform Bendrich Smentana’s From My Life.
I have about a decade before my eldest needs to take some college admissions test, so hopefully this social justice nonsense would lose steam by then.
Fact: kids bear no responsibility to how much time and $ their parents invested in them. Therefore penalising their hard-earned test taking labour is a wrong approach.
Fact: ppl will cheat like mad. Everyone has a Cousin Billy in some shittown whose address they can cite on SAT application to bump up their scores.
Continue reading Reader says , I have about a decade before my eldest needs to take some college admissions test, so hopefully this social justice nonsense would lose steam “
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Ridgewood NJ, Regarding the alleged incident in which extra credit was denied to a RHS student one day, then offered the next day to her entire class in conjunction with the purchase of a $20.00 ticket to the Bergenfest Music & Arts Festival (scheduled to be held at BFMS on June 29 – following the conclusion of the school year),
Continue reading Ridgewood Schools Superintendent Admits description of buying extra credit was accurate
” I have spoken with the parent. She DID go to the teacher. Then she went to the department head. Got nowhere. Then she went to Gorman and Nyhuis. Again, got nowhere. Told them she felt unheard and had no where left to go then to the BOE. She followed every guideline the school gives on how to proceed. This could have ended so easily if those at all the meetings had just said they would look into it and look into policy. But they didn’t. And I have been in meetings like this as well with that administration. They don’t listen, and I’m sure legally cannot ever say anything at all. So they nod and make you feel unheard. This woman was not asking for extra points for her daughter’s grade- she couldn’t care less if her daughter got the one point she wanted by doing extra credit- she told her daughter to respect the teacher’s decision. But when on the VERY NEXT DAY the teacher offered extra credit for attending BergenFest, which was not even in that marking period, the s*&t hit the fan. PLUS FYI the teacher is Gorman’s niece!!! “
“If extra credit doesn’t matter why offer it. “Quite small” what does that mean? You are not clear.
“Nominal fee” Money of any amount should not be allowed to be used to BUY extra credit. Not even one cent. We are talking about a public school in the United State of America. Isn’t that against the law for public schools in the United States of America. Buying good grades.
Are you teaching kids that they can buy their way into what should be an accomplishment, good grades? A kid who can afford the $20 might earn an A minus instead of a B plus. A kid who cannot afford the $20 could get the B plus. A college looking at grades considers the grades.
“Nominal fee” is infuriating. Some families count every penny. Money, not even one cent, should be permitted for PURCHASE of an improved grade, extra credit.
Because of what you expressed in your letter you should be fired Right Now.
Your values, your attitude, your standards should not be allowed in a public school, Ridgewood High School. ( I am not a parent of a school age child.) I am a longtime resident of this town.
And I thought my school taxes were PURCHASING a TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE. “
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Philadelphia Pa , The 93nd Stotesbury Cup Regatta hosted by Schuylkill Navy of Philadelphia took place this past weekend. One hundred and eighty-five clubs gathered at the Schuylkill River for what is now the largest high school rowing regatta in the world. Ridgewood sent 14 crews to compete in a selection from 31 championship events, against exceptionally fine crews from all parts of the United States and Canada.
Overall, Ridgewood came in sixth place in team points, second place in sculling crews and first place over all NY/NJ teams at the event.
Continue reading Outstanding Results for Ridgewood Crew with Two Gold Medals, a Silver and Bronze at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta!
May 21, 2019
Dear Parents/Guardians and Students:
Last night at the Board of Education meeting, a parent approached the Board during public comments regarding the issue of how extra credit is awarded to students in classes at RHS. Subsequently, news organizations picked up on this complaint and were across the street at RHS after school today looking to speak with students.
This concern was recently raised with the administration and since then we have been investigating how teachers administer extra credit in their classes. Each teacher and department handles extra credit differently. The extra points allotted varies but in most cases it is quite small when looking at the overall total amount of points a student can accumulate in the quarter.
Continue reading RHS Extra Credit Letter