Common Core : Here We Go Again Welcome back to the Math Wars
PARCC testing is supposed to be more about the child’s facility with using a computer than his or her knowledge of the subject matter being tested. This is untested, seat-of-the-pants, thrown-together Obamacare website territory we will be in, and there will be a huge blowback. Fifth graders in particular need to be ready for anything, given that their standardized math scores for this year constitute the first 1/7th part of the rubric that determines whether they are ranked in the top 10 percent of their middle school in math at the end of sixth grade. If they are not so ranked, they will be prevented from taking Algebra in 7th grade and will be exposed to the Constructivist CMP math curriculum during all of 7th and 8th grade. This will stunt their growth at a critical time, and will eventually seriously limit their ability to compete for acceptance to a top notch school of engineering or science upon graduation from high school. CMP math in the middle schools is ‘the one that hot away’ about six years ago during the most recent battle in Ridgewood’s protracted Math War.
New Jersey making passing new tests a graduation requirement
OCTOBER 1, 2014, 4:59 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2014, 11:59 PM BY HANNAN ADELY STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
New Jersey is making all students pass new tests in English and math or hit a minimum grade on a college admissions exam to get a high school diploma beginning in 2016.
The decision appears to be a reversal for the administration, which had promised the new tests wouldn’t count right away.
Acting Education Commissioner David Hespe denied that the administration was backing off its promise, because the tests will not be the only option. Students can also graduate if they reach certain minimum scores on tests such as the SAT or ACT or can show a portfolio, he said.
Two years ago, Governor Christie publicly endorsed the new tests based on standards adopted by New Jersey and other states. But as the standards, which are known as the Common Core, have grown controversial among parents and conservative voters, the governor has said little publicly about them. In July, he said he would form a commission to examine the new tests and standards, but no members have been announced yet.
Asked whether the governor agreed to the changes, Hespe said, “that’s between you and the governor’s press office.” Christie’s office declined to comment when reached late Wednesday, and the governor was in California for a Republican Governors Association fundraiser.
The change drew rebukes from parents, teachers and education activists who say it’s unfair to rely on tests that are unfamiliar.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/new-jersey-making-passing-new-tests-a-graduation-requirement-1.1100217#sthash.qVibM0yy.dpuf
Nazi Death Camp Survivor Responds To California School’s Ban On Popular Holocaust Book By Justen Charters
charter school in California is stirring up major controversy after banning a popular book about a woman who helped saved Jews during the Holocaust.
Fox News has more:
Springs Charter Schools in Temecula, Calif., not only had a problem with “The Hiding Place,” they also took issue with any other book that was written by a Christian author or included a Christian message.
“We do not purchase sectarian educational materials and do not allow sectarian materials on our state-authorized lending shelves,” Superintendent Kathleen Hermsmeyer wrote in a letter to attorneys at the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI).
“The Hiding Place” is a best selling book written by Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom, a woman who even after living in a concentration camp made it her life’s work to help rehabilitate other survivors.
I had the opportunity to talk with my friend Alter Wiener (a Holocaust survivor who wrote his own book about his personal story surviving the Nazis) and here’s what he had to say about the ban:
The papers or TV do not bring good news. Violence, corruption, prejudice are on the top of the news. I am saddened and frustrated and feel like reading something uplifting. I had been inspired reading The Hiding Place twenty years ago. The book came to my mind now when I am eager to find a source of light in the darkness. While reading it, for the second time, I gained a respite from exposure to the disparaging current events. Being riveted to The Hiding Place, I am hiding ephemerally from the ominous world.
In today’s modern culture selfishness prevails, youth show no respect for the elderly. The ten Boom family’s moral conduct is the antidote to the corrupted people in today’s society.
As a Holocaust survivor, I just don’t understand how somebody wishes to ban a book such as The Hiding Place that has a message of love and compassion, and banned the book because of its Christian message of love and tolerance.
In addition, the Pacific Justice Institute has threatened to take legal action if the ban isn’t reversed, citing that is a violation of the 1st Amendment. Perhaps the school can just reverse the ban and allow the readers the freedom to choose what they want to read.
Just received this email from the district superintendent. Dr. Stotsky’s views of Common Core are substantially aligned with that of Dr. James Milgram–in a word: Negative.
I think Common Core is a ‘happy name’, meant to inspire confidence in ordinary citizens who don’t have the time to do their own research and are inclined to defer to so-called ‘experts’. In reality, the slightest interest paired with cursory research and at least some independent thought and analysis would reveal to almost every citizen and voter in Ridgewood that while we were busy doing other things, K-12 education in this country has devolved into a true farce.Some derive substantial monetary profit from this circumstance (remember our dalliance with the new superintendent and his wife who turned tail and fled when they found the path into Ridgewood was not paved with rose petals?).
Some, like former Assistant Superintendent Regina Botsford, have been ‘All In’ on this development from the start due to their ideological bent being in favor of warping K-12 curriculum and policy toward their goals and dreams in other areas of life. For example, deliberately disadvantaging boys in math has long been a tool for those who wish to reduce what they see as a stubborn performance disparity in STEM academic subjects and perceived under-representation of women in relatively high-paying STEM jobs.
Still others, like Bill Ayers, and in the decided opinion of this anonymous author, Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Rahm ‘Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste’ Emanuel, and Eric Holder, have found comfort and strategic advantage in creating and maintaining an environment of doubt and uncertainty, and if necessary, chaos. They envision a fundamental transformation of this country and are simultaneously targeting every institution that arguably represents or upholds a worthwhile tradition in the realm of Civil Society, be it religious, social, cultural, educational, moral, or otherwise, for degradation and destruction. And yes, you are right to observe that none of these people has articulated even a murky vision of what it is that they intend to build on the rubble they leave in their wake.
Finally, we have the Foundations, and the wealthy backers of same, like Bill and Melinda Gates, that are obsessed with perceived global overpopulation. Any collection of relatively well-heeled or at least arguably well-credentialed misanthropes with a sufficiently anti-social agenda, including most reform math zealots and other promoters of substance-denuding constructivist educational theories will be at or near the top of the list when it comes to attracting funding and other types of largesse from these organizations, who see themselves as citizens of the world and therefore do not concern themselves with the niceties of local accountability.
With this much firepower on the side of limiting the depth, breadth, value and utility of our children’s K-12 education, it is easy to become overwhelmed and leave it to the next guy or gal to show up at a local panel discussion that, likely as not, is intended to provide nothing more than the appearance of objectivity as Ridgewood and other New Jersey towns continue the process of throwing themselves headlong into the destructive morass of modern constructivist educational theory.
Watch Bill Gates Confirm Everybody’s Worst Fears About Common Core
Rather than defend Common Core from accusations of creeping nationalization, Bill Gates finally confirmed that yes, this is exactly what Core proponents are trying to accomplish—less local autonomy is a good thing.
Robby Soave|Sep. 30, 2014 10:42 am
Common Core critics contend that national education standards will erode local decision-making on school issues while promoting a national curriculum of sorts. Most Core proponents generally dismiss these concerns as unfounded.
But Bill Gates, a major financial backer of the standards, was atypically direct about what peddlers of standardization are trying to accomplish during aPolitico event on Monday. Rather than defend Common Core from accusations of creeping nationalization, he finally confirmed that yes, this is exactly what Core proponents are trying to accomplish—less local autonomy is a good thing, as he says in the video:
“Common Core I would have thought of as more of a technocratic issue. The basic idea of, ‘should we share an electrical plug across the country?’ Well, you can get partisan about that I suppose. Should Georgia have a different railroad width than everybody else? Should they teach multiplication in a different way? Oh that’s brilliant [sarcasm], who came up with that idea? Common Core, the idea that what you should know at various grades, that that should be well-structured and you should really insist on kids knowing something so you can build on it, I did not really expect that to become a big political issue.”
There you have it. Gates views the education system—the many myriad ways Americans could pass on knowledge to their children—as akin to choosing the correct railroad track size. The implication is obvious: after all, there is only one right railroad track size! Similarly, there is only one correct way to teach children, and all children must be taught that way, according to Gates.
Parenting co-pilot, Lenore Skenazy will teach us how to let go so our kids fly!
Free Community Traffic Safety Forum – Wednesday – October 1 – 7PM BFMS
Good News Ridgewood Parents!!
Wednesday, October 1 from 7-9pm at Benjamin Franklin Middle School our parenting co-pilot, Lenore Skenazy will teach us how to let go so our kids fly!
DO NOT MISS THIS EVENT!
Lenore will make us laugh out loud!
She will teach us valuable lessons about trusting ourselves and our children.
The woman known as “America’s Worst Mom” will be the keynote speaker at a community safety forum on Wednesday, Oct. 1 in Ridgewood. The free event is open to anyone concerned about neighborhood and school zone traffic safety, including parents, school personnel and HSA members, law enforcement, public works, businesses, neighborhood organizations – anyone concerned about neighborhood and school zone traffic safety.
Lenore Skenazy is a New York City newspaper columnist-turned-reality-TV show host who earned the moniker after she let her 9-year-old son take the subway – alone. In response to the media blowback, she founded the book and blog “Free-Range Kids” (freerangekids.com), which helped launch the anti-helicopter parenting movement.
Titled “Community Traffic Safety: It’s No Accident,” the event will also feature Tom Everson, founder of Keep Kids Alive Drive 25, a non-profit group, in sponsorship with Teachers’ Insurance of New Jersey. The event, sponsored by the Ridgewood Citizens Safety Advisory Committee, will run from 7:00 to 9 p.m. at Ben Franklin Middle School, 335 N. Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood. Reservations are not necessary.
The purpose of the event is to educate and engage communities on how to implement a community-wide “Keep Kids Alive Drive 25” traffic safety education initiative (KeepKidsAliveDrive25.org). It will focus on speeding, stop-sign running, cell phone use, tailgating, and seat belt use. The first 50 participants will receive a Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 yard sign and five trash can decals. In addition Bookends will provide copies of Lenore Skenazy’s book Free Range Kids.
-Skenazy, a Yale University graduate, believes that children are safer and smarter than comtemporary culture gives them credit for, and her opinions have landed her on talk shows from Dr. Phil to The View. She lectures internationally and has written for everyone from The Washington Post to Mad Magazine (yes – she is funny too). Her reality show on Discovery/TLC International, “World’s Worst Mom,” airs in about a third of the world but not currently in the United States.
The goal of Free-Range Kids! is “fighting the belief that our children are in constant danger from creeps, kidnapping, germs, grades, flashers, frustration, failure, baby snatchers, bugs, bullies, men, sleepovers and/or the perils of a non-organic grape.”
For more information about the event, contact Jeanne Johnson 201-851-3262
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014, 12:31 AM BY GREG TARTAGLIA SPORTS EDITOR THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Since being shut out by Northern Highlands on Sept. 17, the Ridgewood High School girls soccer team has paid the favor forward twice.
Senior goalkeeper Colleen Berry stopped both shots she faced in the Maroons’ 5-0 smothering of Hackensack last Friday. She needed to make only three saves to help RHS lock down Tenafly, 1-0 on Tuesday.
The back-to-back wins raised Ridgewood’s record to 5-2 entering Saturday’s noon match at Demarest.
Sophomore forward Val Diaz helped fuel the offensive outburst versus Hackensack with a pair of goals. Senior Aidan Trevisan and sophomores Riley Ricciardi and Emma LaFrance tallied a goal apiece, and seniors Maddie Philips and Dayna Bussanich each notched an assist.
Ricciardi scored the lone goal at Tenafly in the first half, as the Maroons launched 22 shots on net in the win.
Ridgewood Girls Tennis has confidence heading into Bergen tournament
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014, 12:31 AM BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Just nine matches into the season, the Ridgewood High School girls tennis team has made it clear that even with several new coming underclassmen playing prominent roles, it is still one of the top teams in the area.
The Maroons have a sophomore and freshman holding down their top two singles spots and all the players that returned from last season’s North 1, Group 4 title team are in different positions, but nothing has seemed to faze this RHS team.
“I think they’re beginning to actualize their potential and see what they’re capable of,” head coach Medha Kirtane said in a phone interview Wednesday.
And hopes are high for the team heading into this weekend’s Bergen County tournament at Old Tappan.
“We’re just excited to be in a competitive environment with a number of wonderful dreams that are going to push us in every single draw,” Kirtane said. “It’s a great intense environment to be in that only makes you better.”
North Jersey parents vow to ban alcohol at home parties
SEPTEMBER 28, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2014, 1:21 AM BY DEENA YELLIN STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
Schools around North Jersey are wielding a new weapon in the fight against teen drug and alcohol use: the parents’ pledge.
Dubbed the Safe Homes Pledge, it’s part of a nationwide movement that asks parents to sign an agreement committing themselves to providing adult supervision for parties in their homes, securing prescription medication, and not serving alcohol to any guest under the age of 21.
Among the North Jersey towns and school districts where parents have participated are Ramsey, Ridgewood, Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District, Northern Highlands Regional High School, Pascack Hills, Ringwood, Wayne and Wanaque. The names of parents who have signed the agreement are then listed in a local directory.
Now, parents in the Northern Valley Regional School District are being asked to take the pledge.
The initiative is the latest step in a wide-ranging campaign by the Northern Valley community to fight alcohol and drug use.
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014, 9:26 AM BY JODI WEINBERGER STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The first thing students at Ridgewood High School (RHS) did with their new Chromebooks was power them up and test out their log-ins and passwords to make sure they worked.
The second? Change the background screen.
Some students gathered their friends and took a selfie with the computer’s built-in camera for a truly personal background, others chose bands or cartoons. Junior Becca Feder laughed before saying what her new background was, but then finally admitted, “SpongeBob.”
According to the district’s manager of information technology Ryan Kenny, the other first priorities for the teens was whether they could remove the hard plastic cover and put stickers and decals on the case – the answer to both was “no.”
All together, 1,717 Chromebooks were handed out to the students this week, each one engraved with “Ridgewood Public Schools” and plastered with a barcode and the student’s name for identification.
The high school used the students’ gym period to hand them out, giving them the time to play around with the device before using it for paper writing and other activities in the classroom.
“Is it charged already?” one student asked as he signed his name indicating that he received the laptop.
More schools mull dropping Michelle O’s lunch rules September 25, 2014
GREEN LAKE, Wis. – The Green Lake School District is the latest the join a number of schools reevaluating their participation in the National School Lunch Program.
The Ripon Press reports the district is dissatisfied with the new school lunch and snack rules championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.
“When I walk through the school cafeteria, I see multi-colored fruits and vegetables and whole-grain pasta or wraps on the trays of our students. The food looks really good, but the students aren’t eating it,” principal Mary Allen says, according to the paper.
“… The limited salt, whole-grains, vegetable substitutes for meat, and unfamiliar foods such as ‘quinoa’ and ‘jicama’ are not being embraced. Although the food looks good and is undeniably healthy, it is unflavored and tasteless.”
Students reportedly gave the school board a 31-page report produced in math class, which studied the question: “Will the Green Lake School District better serve its students without the National School Lunch Program?”
PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIEL REICHENBACH Daniel Reichenbach, right, a 2008 RHS graduate, poses with his friend Alex at their beret ceremony after finishing eight months of training.
Ridgewood HS grad’s path brings him to Israel
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014, 12:31 AM BY LAURA HERZOG STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Daniel Reichenbach’s path from a childhood in Ridgewood to an adulthood fighting for Israel in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was not surprising for those who knew him best.
Some could say his decision was predestined.
“This is a long story, which started before I was born,” the 24-year-old man notes, pointing to his parents’ meeting in the ’70s – at a Jewish summer camp.
Though he was not “raised religious,” Reichenbach, who in November will have finished his second and last year of active IDF duty, found another home in Israel.
“All in all, I had a childhood and early adulthood that was saturated in Jewish identity, talk of love for Israel and the Jewish people. I traveled to Israel many times,” he said, and “fell in love with its history and the sheer improbability of its existence.”
Ridgewood NJ, National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists have been announced, as follows (lower left to top right): RHS Principal Tom Gorman congratulates Gabriel F. Voorhis-Allen, Seung Ryoul Lee, Ji–Hyuk Kim, Jeffrey M. Lampiasi, Warren Li, Jaesung Son, who stand with Guidance Counselors Chris Fabish and Peter Burkard. Right, semi-finalist Sumita Rajpurohit poses with Peter Burkard.
Community pitches in on Ridgewood schools planning
SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014, 9:29 AM BY JODI WEINBERGER STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Like excited learners, adults invited to the Board of Education’s (BOE) community planning session readily shared their hopes and dreams for the Ridgewood school district, collaborating with officials and administrators in a way that’s rarely possible at 49 Cottage Place.
The first task as part of the four-hour strategy session on Sept. 13 split the group of 50 or so individuals into smaller clusters to draw a representation of their goals for the schools.
Under the direction of former state school board members Cathie Sousa and Nancy Stern, of Sousa and Stern Educational Consultants LLC, the groups got to work literally coloring their vision of the future.
In the casual atmosphere, enhanced from the standard public BOE meetings by a cheese plate and other snacks, everyone had equal input alongside the school board members, principals and administrators, public safety officials, clergy persons, parents, and other community leaders.
“Some strategic planning processes can take months,” said Superintendent Daniel Fishbein. “This really works.”
RHS Advanced Placement Scholars are Announced September 22nd 2014
Ridgewood NJ, One hundred forty-two students at Ridgewood High School have been named AP Scholars by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the college level Advanced Placement Examinations. About 18 percent of the more than 1.9 million high school students worldwide who took AP Examinations in May 2014 performed at a sufficiently high level to merit such recognition.The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on the students’ performance on AP exams. At Ridgewood High School, seven students qualified for the National AP Scholar Award by earning an average grade of 4.0 or higher on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams.
Sixty students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams.
Thirty-three students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams.
Forty-nine students qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP Exams with grades of 3 or higher.
Fifteen award recipients are juniors. These students have at least one more year in which to do college-level work, and possibly earn another Advanced Placement Award.
