Get ready to see how every local public school in New Jersey stacks up, at least according to the state.
The Christie administration will unveil this week a plan for new school report cards that will rate every public school in New Jersey both statewide and against their peers on overall achievement, gaps in achievement, and specific academic targets.
The proposed School Performance Reports are one piece of the state’s application for a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, due by the end of today.
But whether the application is approved or not, acting education commissioner Chris Cerf said yesterday that the administration would pursue the new system regardless, saying it would provide a better accounting than the current system that lists detailed scores but little in the way of rankings. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
>Breaking News – Serious Motor Vehicle vs. Pedestrian Accident
Girl, 6, Killed On Overbrook Road
Boyd A. Loving
A serious motor vehicle vs. pedestrian accident occurred on Overbrook Road near North Irving Street today at approximately 5:35 PM.
Reports from civilian bystanders now at the scene indicate that the victim was a young child.
Vehicles from Ridgewood PD, Ridgewood Fire, Ridgewood EMS, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Fatal Accident Investigation Unit, and the Bergen County Sherriff’s Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation have all been observed at the scene.
The victim was pronounced dead at The Valley Hospital shortly after arrival there.
>Angry Residents, Businesses Plan Anti-Occupy Wall Street Protest
The movement has been going on for two months.
By Melissa Russo and Erika Tarantal | Monday, Nov 14, 2011 | Updated 2:23 PM EST
Downtown residents and business owners angry that their neighborhood has been occupied for two months by the Wall Street demonstration are staging a protest of the protest Monday, declaring that City Hall has let it get out of control.
Angry over all-day drumming, people urinating and defecating on the streets and verbal attacks from protesters, organizers say they will rally at City Hall Monday to send officials a message.
“Laws are clearly being violated and we simply want them enforced,” Lower Manhattan resident Linda Gertsman told NBC New York.
Exasperated residents and businesses said they are “pursuing all options,” including lawsuits against the city, the mayor and the private company that owns Zuccotti Plaza, the encampment headquarters.
>2010 Uniform Crime Report finds N.J. murders spiked 16 percent, increased in all corners of the state
Murders in New Jersey were up 16 percent last year, and they increased in all corners of the state, from rural towns to the largest the cities, according to statistics released today by the State Police.
The number of killings increased 10 percent in cities with more than 50,000 people. But they also increased 8 percent in the suburbs and 21 percent in rural areas, the State Police’s Uniform Crime report shows. (Baxter, The Star-Ledger)
>TSA Warns Travelers Not To Smuggle Carry-On Items In Christmas Gift Wrap November 11, 2011 11:33 PM
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Security screeners at LAX will apparently have zero tolerance for holiday cheer this Christmas.
KNX 1070′s Bob Brill reports authorities on Friday are on the lookout for people who try to smuggle illegal items disguised as holiday gifts onto airplanes.
Officials with the Transportation Security Administration issued the warning after a traveler was arrested this week after trying to smuggle marijuana in a wrapped gift.There are other items which people feel they can carry on if it looks like a gift, but legally are banned from being brought onto a passenger aircraft.
If the circumstances are suspicious, TSA can and likely will open those gifts
>Internet keeps government honest: Google chief Nov 13 12:57 PM US/Eastern
Broader adoption of the Internet will keep governments on their toes as wired-up citizens exercise their newfound power to check rights abuses, Google chief Eric Schmidt said on Saturday. “In nations and communities around the world, citizens are turning to online tools to keep their governments honest,” he told business leaders on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Honolulu.
“Whistleblowing has never been so easy,” he said.
Schmidt cited demonstrations that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt in which activists used Facebook to schedule protests, Twitter to coordinate them and YouTube to broadcast the events to the world.
“Online citizens can find like-minded allies, they can find like-minded diasporas from a country,” he said.
Mary Higgins Clark & Wendell Minor Tuesday, November 15th @ 4:00pm New York Times Bestselling Author, Mary Higgins Clark & IIlustrator, Wendell Minor, will sign their new book:The Magical Christmas Horse. Books available now.
Regis Philbin ,Tuesday, November 15th @ 7:00pm Host of LIVE with Regis & Kelly, Regis Philbin, will sign his new book: How I Got This Way. Books available November 15th..
Appearing authors will only autograph books purchased at Bookends and must have valid Bookends Receipt.Availability & pricing for all autographed books subject to change.Bookends cannot guarantee that the books that are Autographed will always be First Printings. Autographed books purchased at Bookends are non-returnable.Please call the store for details.
Bookends, 211 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 201-445-0726
As the recent discussions at the Village Council meetings on the Valley Renewal Plan have made clear, both sides have presented valid arguments.
The Ridgewood Residents for Valley support Valley’s plan because they want Valley to maintain its prestige as a state-of-the art medical facility centered in Ridgewood.
The Concerned Residents of Ridgewood are concerned about the cost of the plan to the environmental and traffic safety as well as changing the suburban character of the community.
The good news is that both sides recognize the validity of the other side’s arguments.
Actually, all Ridgewood residents want both: a state–of-the art hospital and a safe environment for all of our residents and their families.
Collaborative teachers means 2 full certified teachers in a classroom. It is like having two managers in a department, tends not to work real well. The only way it does work well is if one steps back and basically acts as a teacher’s aide – in which case just pay for a teacher’s aide.
I have not seen the value added by having a certified teacher in the classroom as opposed to an aid at half the cost and have generally found the aids to be superior in terms of the assistance they give to ALL students. Of course, there are exceptions to this on both sides but, in my experience, two teachers actually results in a less well-run classroom. If we’re cutting the special ed. budget, we should take a hard look at the necessity of the collaborative teachers.
It always seemed that no one was in charge and the quality of instruction was always substandard compared to single instructor classes. Consistently, if one teacher was teaching, the other was not involved with the class at all or any individual students. My child NEVER got added attention in a collaborative class and in fact got less. I did not realize that collaborative classes were there to accomodate special needs kids. They really don’t help at all. What a waste.
My child does worse in a collaborative classroom setting and reports that the collaborative teacher “just kind of hangs out at the front of the classroom and interupts the class ocassionally with comments that make no sense”. They seem to be a detriment to learning (in most instances). I, like you, have complained that they just make no sense; if a spec. ed. child can function intellectually in a mainstream classroom then so be it. If an aid is necessary for other accomodations, such as organization, notetaking, etc. then provide an aid. The collaborative teachers cost 2x as much as an aid and do 1/2 the work.
My problem is that everyone complains about special ed. costing so much. Many special ed. parents, like regular ed parents, have cost-saving ideas that are not considered by the BOE or district personnel. Getting rid of collaborative teachers is high on my list. It seems that all school district use special ed. funding to place extra teachers/aid in classrooms where they aren’t really needed for that cohort of students. If RPS wants teachers helpers, they should NOT try to hide them in the special ed. budget.
>Ridgewood council’s Valley hearings are winding down
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011 BY KELLY EBBELS STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
A decision is drawing near on The Valley Hospital’s expansion project, and Ridgewood residents are coming to the microphone in greater numbers to make sure their thoughts are heard.
At last week’s special public meeting concerning the proposed “Renewal,” a drove of supporters of the hospital’s plans stepped forward in high numbers – many of them doctors, current or former employees or members of the hospital’s board of trustees – to voice their reasons why the project should pass: the importance of single-patient rooms, the need for more space for diagnostic equipment, and the hospital’s support for the community.
Opponents of the project – some of whom asserted that they supported modernization, but not at the scale Valley has proposed – made their case as well, noting that recent testimonies from experts signaled that construction could pose risks to neighboring properties and safety hazards to schoolchildren near the hospital.
Officials in Gov. Chris Christie‘s administration are close to recommending New Jersey join 23 other states in passing a law authorizing public-private partnerships, a senior official said today.
The partnerships would include transportation projects and other areas, according to Wayne Hasenbalg, Christie’s deputy chief of staff for policy and planning.
Hasenbalg also told the infrastructure advocacy group New Jersey Alliance for Action in a brief speech that the administration is preparing significant changes in support of the state growth plan announced by Christie. (Kitchenman, NJBIZ)
>Christie attacks jurists’ motives in pension case
Gov. Christie questioned the motives of two state Supreme Court justices Thursday after the court agreed to fast-track a case involving a Superior Court judge’s challenge to a new requirement that judges – like other state employees – pay more toward their health insurance and pensions.
The suit maintains that the higher contributions in effect reduce judicial salaries and thus violate the state Constitution provision that the salaries of Supreme Court and Superior Court judges “shall not be diminished during their term of appointment.” (DeFalco, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
>N.J. Supreme Court to decide if judges must pay more for pension, health benefits
The legal battle over whether New Jersey state judges and justices should have to pay more for their pension and health benefits will be heard by the state Supreme Court and not a state Appellate Court, according to an order signed by Justice Virginia A. Long.
In the order, filed Thursday, the Supreme Court granted Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale’s request that it decide whether judges and justices must pay more toward their pension and health benefits is unconstitutional. (Hester, New Jersey Newsroom)
