9 New NJ Charter Schools Scheduled to Open in Sept. 2012- Total now 86; new NJ Charter Performance Frameworks Announced

On July 16, 2012, the New Jersey Department of Education approved 9 charter schools to open in September, bringing the total number of charter schools in New Jersey to 86. In addition, the Department continues to improve oversight and accountability for charter schools by instituting new Performance Frameworks that will set clear expectations for charter school performance and will serve as the basis for school evaluation, monitoring, and intervention. Another 13 schools were granted a planning year during which those schools will continue to develop the academic and operational components of the school, which are crucial to ensuring that it will be successful when it opens the following year. Another 10 schools were not granted a planning year and will not receive a final charter because they failed to demonstrate sufficient progress towards readiness.

The list of schools and their final status is as follows:

Charter Schools Granted Final Approval
Name	District
City Invincible Charter School	Camden
Knowledge A to Z Charter School	Camden
Thomas Edison Energy Charter School	Franklin Township
Beloved Charter School	Jersey City
Merit Preparatory of Newark Charter School	Newark
Newark Prep	Newark
Paulo Freire Charter School	Newark
100 Legacy	Newark Irvington
Benjamin Banneker	Willingboro
Charter Schools Granted a Planning Year
Name	District
Atlantic City Community Charter School	Atlantic City
Charter School for Global Leadership	Camden
Camden Community Charter School	Camden
Hope Community Charter School	Camden City
Excellence Charter School	Camden City
New Jersey Virtual Charter School	Camden Perth Amboy Neptune Paterson
Arete Charter School	East Orang Orange
Jersey City Global Charter School	Jersey City
Forest Hill Charter School	Newark
NJ Virtual Academy Charter School	Newark
Trenton Scholars Charter School	Trenton
Merit Prepartory of Trenton Charter School	Trenton City
Compass Academy Charter School	Vineland
Charter Schools Denied Final Approval
Name	District
Regis Academy Charter School	Cherry Hill
DREAM Prep Academy	Jersey City
Promise CS for Excellence	Linden
Lillie Mae Jenkins Charter School	Newark
New Day Charter HS	Newark
Spirit Prep	Newark
Bright Horizons	Penns Grove
Princeton International Academy Charter School	S. Brunswick
Shalom Academy Charter School	Teaneck
Willingboro Academy Charter School	Willingboro

Hoboken High School Principal Leaves District- Search Begins for Fourth Principal in 30 Months

Hoboken Patch reports that Hoboken High School's principal was hired to work in the Hopatcong school district on Monday night (July 23), during a heated Board of Education meeting. According to PATCH, Ms. Noreen Lazariuk accepted less money than she earned guiding Hoboken High School to become Hopatcong High School's principal. Lazariuk, who only spent the 2011-2012 school year leading Hoboken High, said on Monday night that she looked forward to the challenge Hopatcong presented. "I'm still kind of processing it," she said. "I'm happy and excited." Last year, when taking the Hoboken High School principal position, Ms. Lazariuk was quoted as saying, "Whenever I take on a new challenge, I really just pour myself into it,” she said. “I’m very proud to be the next principal of Hoboken High School.” Best of luck to Ms. Lazarluk as she pours herself into her new challenge at Hopatcong.

The Hoboken Board of Education now faces the recently familiar and seemingly ongoing task of finding a new high school principal. This time around for the 2012-2013 school year. The anticipated hire will be the fifth principal or interim principal at Hoboken High School in the past six years and the fourth Hoboken High School principal or interim principal in the past 30 months. The district has also seen 4 superintendents or interim superintendents in the past 3 years.

As many regular readers of this blog know, the political group known as "Kids First" have majority control of the Hoboken Board of Education and have held primary responsibility for the advertising, searching, appointing, interviewing, renewal and non-renewal of district and school level administrators and supervisors since April 2009. Their use of micro-management techniques coupled with alleged punitive actions characterized by the Hoboken Reporter as "fear and loathing in the Hoboken schools" by "Kids First" are fairly well documented and have likely had consequences in terms of student achievement, discipline, faculty development, and implementation consistency of school and district wide curricula efforts.

How does this relate to HHS or the Hoboken School District? In November of 2011, for the first time in its history, the Hoboken School District was classified as a "District in Need of Improvement" by the State of New Jersey and the US Department of Education. Research literature in educational administration and education policy would certainly connect the recent and excessive turnover of school and district level leadership (and their reasons for leaving) as a contributory factor in designating the entire school district in need of improvement. -Dr. Petrosino

Please click here for full list of 2011-2012 NJ Districts which failed to make AYP

Please click here for full 2011-2012 Status Profile for NJ District which failed to make AYP

New Position at Stevens Institute of Technology

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Requisition Number: PROV6701 Job Title: Education Researcher Department: CIESE Position Type: Full Time Requirements: A PhD in educational measurement, statistics, research methods, a natural science and/or engineering education or a closely related field, is preferred. The successful candidate will have at least two years of progressively responsible experience. Candidates with strong backgrounds in science and/or engineering education are preferred. Job Description: The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) at the Stevens Institute of Technology, seeks an experienced K-12 science and engineering education researcher and assessment developer. The successful candidate will support the Assistant Directors for Assessment and STEM Education Research in the design and implementation of research and assessment projects. He or she will also collaborate to prepare study results for publication or presentation, including conducting literature searches, producing charts and graphs, writing and/or editing. Job Description Plan, design, conduct or assist with education research projects. Participate in the design and development of quantitative research and data collection; monitor data collection and analysis; evaluate availability and usefulness of data; identify and collect additional data necessary for completing research projects. Design and develop plans for qualitative data collection, entry and analysis. Provide comprehensive review of data collected from field sites to ensure completeness, quality and accuracy; oversee scoring and entry of data for computer analysis. Write, review, and revise multiple choice, constructed response and curriculum-embedded assessments. Assemble tests or pools of items to meet specifications, working independently and as part of a team. Edit and review items acquired from external sources; gather and resolve feedback from multiple sources on items; evaluate item acceptability after testing. Write, rewrite, and edit proposals, professional reports, research instruments, research articles, and correspondence. Conduct literature searches; review current research on research models and methods. Perform independent analyses of literature by reading, summarizing, and evaluating it preliminary to undertaking research. The Education Researcher position is contingent on grant funding. However, we are committed to support and will seek additional funds to continue the role. CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE

Science of the Summer Olympics: Engineering in Sports

The Olympians from Team USA heading to London in July represent not only an American commitment to athletic achievement, but also the pervasive impact of innovation.

From the devices that protect the athletes, to the mechanisms that track their races, to the systems that help them train, technologies created and guided by engineers are critical components of the Olympic experience.

For the London 2012 Olympic Games, the National Science Foundation (NSF), NBC Learn (the educational arm of NBC News) and NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, are launching a series of ten videos highlighting the engineering that is part of the Olympics, as told by top athletes and engineers. Watch all ten videos on the NSF website and on NSF's Science360 website.

Titled Science of the Summer Olympics: Engineering in Sports, the series is a continuation of the Emmy-winning NSF-NBC "Science of ... " partnership.

"The work of engineers not only affects Olympic sports, it also helps us perform ordinary activities in better ways," said Thomas Peterson, NSF assistant director for Engineering. "This series will illustrate how engineers can impact both sports and society, and we hope it will inspire young people to pursue engineering."

Each segment features a top athlete sharing his or her sports experiences, paired with perspectives from leading engineers about the technologies that aid the athletes or the mechanics that explain their craft.

The series is narrated by NBC Sports Group's Liam McHugh, and covers a range of events and topics. Viewers will learn how Missy Franklin cuts through water faster thanks to specially-engineered pools, how a stereoscopic camera system helps Olympic champion decathlete Bryan Clay improve his long jump, how "blades" technology helps Paralympian Oscar Pistorius compete--for the first time--against able-bodied runners in the Olympic Games, and how a pressurized treadmill system helped runner Jenny Simpson heal from injury.

The series also delves into the unique biomechanics of athletes--from the world's fastest man, Usain Bolt, to superheavyweight weightlifter Sarah Robles--and how technology still has much to learn from human achievement.

Each video segment will be available to NBC affiliate stations, and for free on the Web accompanied by an engineering-focused lesson plan for middle- and high-school teachers developed by the National Science Teachers Association.

"The Olympic Games are a time when the world gathers to watch the best athletes compete for gold, and with this new video series, people can see and learn exactly what it takes to reach the top," said Soraya Gage, executive producer of NBC Learn. "We're thrilled to continue this successful partnership with NSF and NBC Sports, to provide students and teachers with engaging content that makes learning about engineering both relevant and fun."

The segments feature some of the world's top athletes and record holders, including:

Missy Franklin, swimmer
Queen Underwood, boxer
Sarah Robles, weightlifter
Jenny Simpson, runner
Oscar Pistorius, runner
Usain Bolt, runner
Bryan Clay, decathlete

Each segment also features engineers from some of the world's top universities and institutions:

Timothy Wei, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Anette (Peko) Hosoi, MIT
Rory Cooper, University of Pittsburgh and 1988 Paralympics bronze medalist
Nikhil Gupta, NYU-Poly
Linda Milor, Georgia Tech
Brian Zenowich, Barrett Technologies
Samuel Hamner, Stanford University
Cris Pavloff, Advanced Technology Engineer for BMW
Melvin Ramey, University of California-Davis and Biomechanist for USA Track & Field
Phil Cheetham, Senior Sport Technologist for the US Olympic Committee

The videos are archived on Science360.gov.

For more videos from the NSF-NBC partnership, see: Science of the Winter Olympics, Science of NFL Football, Science of NHL Hockey, Science Behind The News, Changing Planet and Chemistry Now.

-NSF-



Media Contacts
Joshua A. Chamot, NSF (703) 292-7730 jchamot@nsf.gov
Meghan Pianta, NBC News Communications (212) 664-2364 meghan.pianta@nbcuni.com


The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, its budget is $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives over 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards nearly $420 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

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Congress passes student loan bill- not all good news for students

Congress gave final approval on Friday, June 29th to legislation that combines a two-year transportation measure with bills to extend subsidized student loans and revamp federal flood insurance, wrapping up a bruising session with measures that will be popular on the campaign trail. The $6.7 billion student loan provision extends the current 3.4 percent interest rate on Stafford loans for one year, financed by changes in pension laws and a restriction on the length of time students could get those loans. The flood insurance program increases premiums and requires people living near levees to have coverage.

For Republicans, the huge measure violated a number of promises that the new leadership had made to the Tea Party-fueled electorate that brought it to power.

Bills were not to be bundled together at the last minute. They were supposed to be posted on the Internet 72 hours in advance, and they were generally to rein in — not expand — the scope of government.

During the 2010 campaign, Republicans taunted Democrats for enacting laws like the health care legislation that were too long to read. At 596 pages, posted on Thursday night, this one could not have been read by many.

Not all good news on student loan interest rate. To make up for the "savings"- Graduate students will now have to pay the interest on their loans while they're still in school. All students will have to start paying back the money they borrowed immediately after graduation — the six-month grace period during which the government paid the interest is gone. Lawmakers also limited the number of semesters needy students can receive a Pell Grant and made it harder to qualify for the maximum award. The total cost to students, according to some estimates, is $18 billion to $20 billion extra over the next 10 years.

Picture: Dom's Bakery- Hoboken, NJ