Petrosino and Colleagues Present at the American Educational Research Association Meeting in Philadelphia

The American Educational Research Association (AERA), a national research society, strives to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.

AERA's more than 25,000 members are faculty, researchers, graduate students, and other distinguished professionals with rich and diverse expertise in education research. They work in a range of settings from universities and other academic institutions to research institutes, federal and state agencies, school systems, testing companies, and nonprofit organizations. Based on their research, they produce and disseminate knowledge, refine methods and measures, and stimulate translation and practical application of research results.

Walking at the Boundaries: Learnings From an RPP (Research-Practice Partnership) Approach to Informal Math LearningFri, April 12, 11:25am to 12:55pm, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 100, Room 112B

Abstract: Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs) are a collaborative approach to inquiry where university-based researchers and community-based practitioners share in the work of understanding educational problems and creating evidence-based solutions. Theoretically drawing upon boundary spanners, boundary practices, and boundary objects, we aim to understand how boundary crossing is promoted across nine informal learning partners. Initial findings suggest that informal mathematics learning is conceptualized differently across sites. Future research is needed to understand how the boundary crossings change over time.

Authors

Anthony J. Petrosino; Marc Sager, Southern Methodist University; Maximilian Sherard, Southern Methodist University; Candace A. Walkington, Southern Methodist University; Julianna Claiborne Washington, Southern Methodist University; Saki L. Milton, Southern Methodist University

Thursday Roundtable Session 9:00 am

Time: Thu, April 11, 9:00 to 10:30amPlace: Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B

“It Is Too Perfect for Nature”: Exploring Discussions About the Relationship Between Nature and Mathematics - Maximilian Sherard, Southern Methodist University; Marc Sager, Southern Methodist University; Saki L. Milton, Southern Methodist University; Koshi Dhingra, talkSTEM; Anthony J. Petrosino, Southern Methodist University; Candace A. Walkington, Southern Methodist University

Hoboken City Council Rejects Proposed 2024-25 Municipal Budget; Hoboken Board of Education Voices No Protest Over 2024-25 School Budget

The proposed Hoboken municipal budget tax will go from $70.255 million to $74.626 million, an increase of 6.2% or $4.371 million Meanwhile, the proposed Hoboken Board of Education tax levy will go from $58.716 million to $73.012 million which is an increase of 24.35% or $14.296 million. 

Picture: Congratulations to all the 2024 Inductees of the Hoboken High School Hall of Fame- Elks Club, Hoboken (April 7, 2024) 

Petrosino and Colleagues to Present at the Intl. Society of Learning Sciences (ISLS) conference in Buffalo, NY

Congratulations to my colleagues and the team of SMU Simmons faculty and students who have 6 papers accepted at the Intl. Society of Learning Sciences (ISLS) conference in Buffalo, NY in June.

The following are the references of the accepted papers by Dr. Walkington, along with other faculty members Drs. Anthony Cuevas, Anthony Petrosino, Kelsey Schenck, Prajakt Pande, post-doc researchers Drs. LeaAnne Daughrity, and Max Sherard, as well as Simmons Ph.D. students Saki Milton, Marc Sager, Julianna Washington, and Theodora Beauchamp:

Sager, M., Sherard, M., Milton, S., Walkington, C., & Petrosino, A. Learning math through a game-based personal excursion.

Schenck, K., Kim, D., Xia, F., Swart, M., Walkington, C., & Nathan, M.J. Exploring Interactive Technology for Supporting Embodied Geometric Reasoning.

Daughrity, L., Walkington, C., Sherard, M., Pande, P., Beauchamp, T., & Cuevas, A. From Abstract to Tangible: Leveraging Virtual Reality and GeoGebra for Playful Math Education.

Sherard, M., Walkington, C., Daughrity, L., Pande, P., Beauchamp, T., Petrosino, A., & Cuevas, A. Pedagogical Issues in Virtual Reality Mathematics Education.

Milton, S., Sager, M., & Walkington, C. Exploring STEM Identity and Belonging in Minoritized Girls at a Summer Camp.

Washington, J., Darwin, T., Beauchamp, T., & Walkington, C. A Qualitative Comparison of Mathematics Teachers’ and Students’ Experiences in a Virtual Reality Algebra Application.

Announcing the Winners of the 2024 Excellence in NJ Local News Awards - "Hoboken Schools Superintendent Didn’t Receive Doctorate Until Aug. ’22, Records Show"

Congratulations to John Heinis (@HeinisHardNews) and the team at Hudson County View for receiving this prestigious award and recognition for a story they investigated and uncovered dealing with the superintendent of the Hoboken School District and the Hoboken Board of Education.

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2024 Excellence in New Jersey Local News Awards. This year, we received an astounding 85 submissions, the highest number in the history of our awards program.

“Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” George Orwell

The quality of the entries was truly exceptional, making the selection process especially challenging.

After careful consideration, we have selected the following 10 award winners who exemplify the vital role that local journalism plays in informing and serving New Jersey residents and communities:

Click to Enlarge 

John Heinis, Hudson County View

Heinis uncovered that a school superintendent lied about having a doctoratefor years. John’s diligent research and questioning revealed a troubling pattern of deception, promoting accountability in the school system.

Excerpt from the article: 

In all 75 of the board meetings she attended until last August, she was also referred to as Dr. Johnson.

At no time did she or the board discourage the use of the inappropriate title, video recordings of the meetings show.

Furthermore, in her response to HCV, Johnson indicated that she hadn’t submitted her dissertation before applying for the Hoboken job, saying only that she had completed the other work for the degree.

But in answering an Open Public Records Act request for information on Johnson’s background, Board President Sharyn Angley and Vice President Malani Cademartori asserted that Johnson had also finished all the work for the degree, including her dissertation before 2015, but didn’t receive her degree until she paid off her tuition.

“While finished with her requirements for her Doctor of Letters, the superintendent maintained matriculation in order to continue paying owed tuition. Once Dr. Johnson finished paying her tuition, her diploma for that particular degree was released,” they wrote in the January 18th email.

However, her dissertation raises doubts about this claim. Johnson’s dissertation, dated August 19th, 2022, indicates that it was researched and written several years after the board hired her, not before.

ASSA Reports Oct2022 and Oct2023 - Hoboken School District / Kindergarten Enrollment October 2019 to October 2022

Click to Enlarge 

There has been a great deal of hyperbole and (mis)information about enrollment in the Hoboken Public School District.  Here are some actual numbers taken from the annual Application for School State Aid (ASSA) Report also known as the "October 15th" report since all districts in NJ use this mechanism to report on official student enrollment. 

ACTUAL ENROLLMENT HOBOKEN DISTRICT

ASSA REPORT: Fall 2022: 2303 K-12 + 851 PreK [total includes 160 Choice students];

ASSA REPORT: Fall 2023: 2588 K-12 + 933 PreK [total includes 164 Choice students]

Watching the video of a recent BOE meeting (https://youtube.com/watch?v=vCxwPk4qwIY…), Christine Johnson's claims for a proposed 24.3% increase in the 2024-25 budget include: new staff; compensation for existing staff; "appreciation" money for the staff's response to the pandemic; vague "structural repairs" to the buildings; exhaustion of $5.8 million COVID money.

Approval of the Tentative 24.3% Increase for the Hoboken Public School District Budget for the 2024-2025 Fiscal Year (plus Video)

Meeting

Mar 19, 2024 - SPECIAL SESSION - ADOPTION OF THE TENTATIVE BUDGET

Type

Action (Consent)

Recommended Action

WHEREAS, the Superintendent and Business Administrator recommend to the members of the Hoboken Board of Education a Local Tax Levy of $73,012,635 to support the 2024-2025 General Fund Budget in the amount of $88,442,445; and

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Education hereby adopts the Hoboken Board of Education School Budget, Fiscal Year 2024-2025, hereto as a tentative budget for the purpose of submitting said budget to the Office of the Hudson County Superintendent of Schools as required by law and code, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the board of education hereby directs the Board Secretary / School Business Administrator to cause said budget to be advertised in the newspapers and made available on the school district website as required, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that subsequent to the County Superintendent’s approval of said tentative budget, the board will welcome community input at its regularly scheduled annual Public Budget Hearing on 07 MAY 2024 and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Hoboken Board of Education will, after said public hearing, vote to formally adopt the Proposed School District Budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year at a Public Meeting to be held on 14 MAY 2024.

TO BE ADOPTED BY THE HOBOKEN BOARD OF EDUCATION ON 19 MARCH 2024

Motion & Voting

RESOLVED, that the Board of Education approves a Consent Agenda.

Motion by Sharyn Angley, second by Chetali Khanna.

Final Resolution: Motion Carries

Yes: Sharyn Angley, Malani Cademartori, Alex De La Torre, Antonio Grana, Chetali Khanna, Thomas Kluepfel, Ailene McGuirk 

You can watch the 20-minute presentation of the initial budget: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCxwPk4qwIY

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Hoboken Property Owners Would Be Slammed with Average $632 Tax Hike Under Proposed School Budget- By Teri West | The Jersey Journal

On March 20, 2024, Terri West of The Jersey Journal reported that, Hoboken property owners are being slammed with a tax increase of more than $600 under the school district’s proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year, which gained initial approval Tuesday night.

Much of the 24.3% increase is a result of a growing staff, rising staff salaries and higher facilities costs, Superintendent Christine Johnson said Wednesday.

The tax levy for the owner of an average home would jump by $632, district Business Administrator Joyce Goode said. The $88.4 million budget is $14.8 million higher than the current school year’s budget of $73.6 million.

The 24.3% spike comes on the heels of a 6.3% increase — or roughly $115 per average homeowner — last year. Prior to this, the average tax levy increase over the previous five years was 5.1%, the superintendent said.

With the budget’s unanimous first passage Tuesday night, it is now sent to the county superintendent of schools for approval.

“This is quite a large tax increase, but as it’s broken down into the categories, you can see there’s basically no fluff in this budget at all and it’s truly streamlined,” Goode said.

The district’s growing enrollment and aging facilities have been key topics of concern for the Board of Education in recent years and were frequently referenced at Tuesday’s special Board of Education meeting as factors that inevitably impacted the budget.

While the district did not lose state aid for the first time in recent years, its $725,000 increase in state aid will be dedicated to special education and school choice, which allows non-Hoboken residents to attend Hoboken schools.

“Any increase is certainly better than any cuts in state aid, but the funds don’t cover the rises we are seeing in special education costs,” Johnson said. “They do not cover the cost that we were seeing associated with enrollment growth, and they certainly do not touch any of the cost that we are seeing that are associated with aging facilities.”

The budget includes a $1.6 million transfer of funds from the capital reserve to finance a project that would bring modular classrooms, or trailers, to Wallace Elementary School, to free up space at Brandt Elementary School, the superintendent said.

Choosing not to do the project would reduce the tax levy by 2.2%, but the district considers the project to be critical, Johnson said.

An addition of about 20 new staff positions represents 4.2% of the tax levy increase, and an increase in existing staff salaries and benefits represents another 7.6% of the tax levy increase, Johnson said.

“The original tax levy was a lot higher than this, so painfully we did reduce it down to this level,” Goode said, adding that the district will reduce it if any new funding becomes available during the budget process.

“I appreciate all the work that has been done on this budget,” said Board of Education President Ailene McGuirk. “School districts are not insulated from inflationary pressures or increases in utilities or insurance.”

District officials said they will continue to work on the budget in the coming days to see if it can be further trimmed.

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The proposed budget is either now or soon will be in the hands of the County Superintendent of Schools. Here is contact information should you have any questions or concerns: 

Hudson County Office

Melissa Pearce, Interim Executive County Superintendent

melissa.pearce@doe.nj.gov

Office Location:
Hudson County Office of Education
830 Bergen Avenue
Suite 7B
Jersey City, NJ 07306-4507
Directions
Phone: (201) 369-5290
Fax: (201) 369-5288

Johnson and Hoboken Board of Education Propose a 24.3% School Tax Increase Despite Receiving Millions from the State for Choice Students

 The Hoboken School District receives $2,911,656 (figure 1) for 164 Choice students (figure 2- lower right-hand corner of page) attending the district from outside the physical perimeters of the City of Hoboken. This information may be relevant as the City of Hoboken grapples with an historical increase in the local school tax levy of over 24%. 

Figure 1: NJ State Aid 2024-25

2024-25 ASSA Report - Hoboken 

According to NJ.com, Hoboken property owners are being slammed with a tax increase of more than $600 under the school district’s proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year, which gained initial approval Tuesday night. Much of the 24.3% increase is a result of a growing staff, rising staff salaries and higher facilities costs, Superintendent Christine Johnson said Wednesday. The tax levy for the owner of an average home would jump by $632, district Business Administrator Joyce Goode said. The $88.4 million budget is $14.8 million higher than the current school year’s budget of $73.6 million.

In 2010 a bill was passed in NJ essentially limiting/eliminating the need for a school budget vote if the proposed budget is 2% or lower than the previous year's budget. 

Petrosino and Sager Present Research in Denver, CO at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching - March 17, 2024 - March 20, 2024 - "Urban Farming within a Transdisciplinary Research Practice Partnership"

NARST is a global organization of professionals committed to the improvement of science teaching and learning through research. Since its inception in 1928, NARST has promoted research in science education and the communication of knowledge generated by the research. The ultimate goal of NARST is to help all learners achieve science literacy. NARST promotes this goal by: 1) encouraging and supporting the application of diverse research methods and theoretical perspectives from multiple disciplines to the investigation of teaching and learning in science; 2) communicating science education research findings to researchers, practitioners, and policy makers; and 3) cooperating with other educational and scientific societies to influence educational policies.

The following is an ABSTRACT of a paper my PhD student and I are presenting at NARST 2024 in Denver, Colorado entitled Urban Farming within a Transdisciplinary Research Practice Partnership

Abstract

One way to create more sustainable transdisciplinary research networks is through establishing research practice partnerships (RPPs) between an urban farm, a faculty and staff from a Historically Black College, and researchers at a medium-sized private university. We investigate student-workers’ resiliency at an urban farm situated on the campus of a Historically Black College. This study draws from literature that explores tensions between informal learning environments and formal spaces, equitable food and farming systems, and the resiliency of farm works, and is grounded in the theory of situated cognition. Utilizing a participatory design research approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews and deductively analyzed the data using critical food systems education. Our findings revealed what socio-scientific topics are discussed on an urban farm: 1) how participants were eager to engage with the local community; 2) how the participants demonstrated resiliency while working on the urban farm; 3) how power dynamics played a pivotal role to inform the direction of the urban farm; 3) how participants consider the community’s access to healthy foods an important mission for the farm. Our findings help deepen our understanding of the socio-scientific issues within an informal science education space. 

2024-25 APPLICATION FOR STATE SCHOOL AID - 17 HUDSON / 2210 HOBOKEN CITY

The ASSA is the data collection used to gather the resident and nonresident

pupil counts required to calculate a school district’s state aid entitlement.

For a school district to receive state aid for a pupil, the student must be

enrolled on October 13 in a program that will meet for at least 180 days

during the school year.

A district is required to report the number of pupils enrolled full-time or

shared-time in each school by grade or special education category. In

addition, a district must also report the number of pupils that are sent and

received and the number of pupils enrolled as follows on October 13:

• LEP pupils (ELL)

• Low income pupils (pupils eligible for free meals/free milk or reduced

meals)

• Shared-time county vocational school district pupils

• County special services school district pupils

• Regional day school pupils

• Pupils in certain State-operated programs

• Accredited adult high school pupils

• Pupils in approved private schools for the disabled

Here is a FAQ put out by the State of NJ concering the ASSA report: https://www.nj.gov/education/finance/sf/assa_faq.shtml

2024-25 APPLICATION FOR STATE SCHOOL AID - 2210 HOBOKEN CITY by Tony Petrosino on Scribd

 

Does Hoboken Public School District Limit Comments on "X" (formally Twitter) ?

Recently, a post on Twitter ("X") came to my attention. First, the Hoboken School District posted a few pictures of a class trip to Boston to visit colleges. But, it was pointed out that the Hoboken School District limits comments of their Twitter account. I was not aware of this. 

Here is the comment: Do they let children in with 8% math proficiency? Notice how the Public School district in #Hoboken does not allow public comments. Their public relations firm wants to control the narrative, instead of telling residents the truth.

Here are the latest test scores, 8% of students are proficient in Mathematics, over half of the school is reading below grade level, and 1% of students are proficient in Science. These are NJDOE assessments that are aligned with the curriculum. Is this proper preparation for college? Is this a proper education in general? Decide for yourself: 

Limited Comments Allowed? 

Hoboken Dual Language Charter School - Top 4% in BOTH Elementary and Middle School NJ Rankings

 

The Hoboken Dual Language Charter School is a charter school located in Hoboken, NJ, which is in a large suburb setting. The student population of Hoboken Dual Language Charter School is 417 and the school serves K-8. At Hoboken Dual Language Charter School, 58% of students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and 71% scored at or above that level for reading.

The school’s minority student enrollment is 46%. The student-teacher ratio is 26:1, which is the same as that of the district.The student population is made up of 47% female students and 53% male students. The school enrolls 11% economically disadvantaged students. There are 16 equivalent full-time teachers and 1 full-time school counselor.

See Full US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT summary of Hola:

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/new-jersey/hoboken-dual-language-charter-school-232484