Press Release: Hoboken Mayor, District Superintendent Join in Celebrating HoLa Charter School’s Award

Left to Right: Barbara Martinez, HoLa Board President; Julie Blunt, New Jersey Department of Education
Ravi Bhalla, Mayor of Hoboken; Dr. Christine Johnson, Superintendent of Hoboken Schools 
Jennifer Sargent, Executive Director HoLa; Emily Jabbour, Hoboken City Councilwoman
Mike Defusco, Hoboken City Councilman

HOBOKEN, NJ (April 27, 2018)—The Hoboken DualLanguage Charter School celebrated its “model program” award at an assembly this morning that featured speeches by Mayor Ravi Bhalla, city council members as well as the Hoboken District Superintendent, Dr. Christine Johnson.

“We’re here to celebrate what HoLa has accomplished through the years,” said Mayor Ravi Bhalla.”When we look at Hoboken, we always want to be ahead of the curve and be an example, and HoLa is leading the way,” the Mayor said. He also made note of the presence of Hoboken Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Christine Johnson.

“I think Dr. Johnson’s presence shows that we as a community have turned the page and we are coming together to work together,” the Mayor said as HoLa parents burst into applause. “There are great things happening in the district schools, great things happening in the charter schools and what really matters is that we start having a conversation and continue that conversation so that we are working together, because at the end of the day we are one community. We can all learn from each other and I’m so proud that Hola in its own distinct way is not only a model for Hoboken but for the entire state of New Jersey.”

Last week the New Jersey Department of Educationnamed HoLa a Dual Language Model Program.  HoLa was one of only 5 schools in the state of New Jersey to receive the designation, and the only charter school in the state. As a Dual Language Model Program, the NJ DOE said that HoLa will serve as a “resource for other districts in the state and enable educators to witness firsthand exemplary practices in dual language instruction and assessment.” The award followed a rigorous application process that included a full-day site visit by DOE officials and interviews with students, parents, teachers and administrators.

At the assembly, Dr. Johnson said “one of the most powerful things we can do as human beings is recognize the strengths and accomplishments in others; I think it’s good for the soul and for community building, and great for education. On this very special day and beyond, I feel great about celebrating your accomplishments and know that I’m personally very proud of the things you’ve accomplished and all the work of Ms. Sargent and her staff.”

Jennifer Sargent

Jennifer Sargent, HoLa’s Executive Director and lead founder of the school said that “it is incredibly meaningful to all of us here at HoLa to have representatives from the state, the county, the city and our local district schools here together in one place to celebrate along with us.  This really is an inspiring glimpse of what public education can look like--coming together in support of all of our students: those here are HoLa, in our neighboring schools throughout Hoboken and across the state.”

She also led all of the students, families and elected officials in a long standing ovation for the teachers of the school, “who are the backbone of the success that HoLa has demonstrated.”

City Councilmembers Mike DeFusco and EmilyJabbour also attended and spoke at the event.

HoLa students at Model Program Ceremony 4/27/18

“What you’re learning is not just a second language,” DeFusco said to the students. “You’re learning about how to be global citizens of this world. And as you look around and see all the disagreements going around, in Hoboken, in this country and this world, it comes from a lack of understanding of one another. When you are learning a second language, you’re learning how to communicate on a global level,” he said.

Councilwoman Jabbour said she was planning a meeting of all school leaders in the city to keep collaborative conversations between schools going—so that schools can learn from each other for the benefit of all of Hoboken’s children.


For Press Click HERE  
Supporting Dual Language Click Here 
Hoboken Board of Education Votes Down HoLa 4-3 (January 2009)
HoLa Rejected (Feb 2009)  
NJDOE Compliance Decision on HoLa Contract (2009) 

NJ.COM/New Jersey Department of Education Reports on Most Recent SAT Scores of All Public High Schools in Hudson County, NJ-

Hoboken Monday, April 16, 2018 

As reported by NJ.com, the New Jersey state Department of Education released school by school data on SAT scores in it NJ School Performance Report for the 2016-17 school year. In Hudson County only four schools surpassed the state average for the SATs, the standardized test that is considered one of the key factors in college admission. The state average score for the SAT reading and writing test was 551 and for the math portion it was 552 -- for a 1,103 total. Some 17 public schools in Hudson County didn't reach that total. 

The average Hudson County combined score for the math and the reading/writing was 1,014, with scores ranging from a low of 859 to a high of 1,308. Hudson's average for math was 509 and for reading/writing it was 504. 

1. McNair Academic High School

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 646

Math score: 662

Total: 1,308

2. High Tech High School

Location: North Bergen

Reading/writing score: 597

Math score: 595

Total: 1,192

3. Infinity High School 

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 567

Math score: 598

Total: 1,165

4. Secaucus High School

Location: Secaucus

Reading/writing score: 555

Math score: 569

Total: 1,124

5. County Prep High School

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 542

Math score: 548

Total: 1,090

6. Weehawken High School

Location: Weehawken

Reading/writing score: 542

Math score: 525

Total: 1,067

7. Bayonne High School

Location: Bayonne

Reading/writing score: 526

Math score: 518

Total: 1,044

8. Kearny High School

Location: Kearny

Reading/writing score: 519

Math score: 513

Total: 1,032

9. Harrison High School

Location: Harrison

Reading/writing score: 504

Math score: 502

Total: 1,006

10. Liberty High School

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 501

Math score: 503

Total: 1,004

11. M.E.T.S. Charter School

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 487

Math score: 495

Total: 982

12. Memorial High School

Location: West New York

Reading/writing score: 484

Math score: 489

Total: 973

13. North Bergen High School

Location: North Bergen

Reading/writing score: 490

Math score: 481

Total: 971

14. Dickinson High School

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 473

Math score: 497

Total: 970

15. Union City High School

Location: Union City

Reading/writing score: 475

Math score: 482

Total: 957

16. University Academy Charter School

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 464

Math score: 476

Total: 940

17. Hoboken High School

Location: Hoboken

Reading/writing score: 470

Math score: 465

Total: 935

18. Hoboken Charter School

Location: Hoboken

Reading/writing score: 448

Math score: 466

Total: 914

19. Ferris High School

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 435

Math score: 447

Total: 882

20. Snyder High School 

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 438

Math score: 431

Total: 869

21. Lincoln High School 

Location: Jersey City

Reading/writing score: 431

Math score: 428

Total: 859 

Click to Enlarge

How do these Hudson County High Schools compare to other schools in the state of New Jersey? You can point your browser to this link to look up your own Hudson County High School of interest. For regular readers of this blog, the Hoboken High School is ranked 334 out of 387 public high schools in composite SAT scores (Mathematics + Reading).

2018 American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting- Petrosino's Presentations

The American Educational Research Association, or AERA, was founded in 1916 as a professional organization representing educational researchers in the United States and around the world. It is headquartered at 1430 K Street in Washington, D.C. As a nonprofit serving the education research field, AERA strives to advance knowledge about education and promote the use of research to improve education and the public good. This year’s annual meeting of over 15,000 members will take place in New York City. Below are the paper and posters that I will be presenting with fellow colleagues and graduate students along with a brief abstract on details of each research project. -Dr. Petrosino


1) Harron, J. R., Petrosino, A. J., & Jenevein, S. (2018, April). Pre-service elementary education teacher perspectives of the use of virtual reality in science teaching. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.

Place: Monday, 12:25. We are listed first. Millennium Broadway New York Times Square Fourth Floor, Room 4.04-4.05
 
Abstract: This paper explores the use of pre-service elementary science methods teachers’ perceptions of using virtual reality (VR) in science teaching. Participant engaged in a VR field trip to a natural history museum and visited the location in person. Findings include VR experiences in science could be used to teach about remote locations, places that are too dangerous to visit, to observe events that are usually too small or too large to view with the naked eye, and to experience different time periods. Further findings include participants prefer actual field trips, but view VR as a viable alternative based on access, time, and cost. Finally, research has uncovered possible misconception regarding using VR as an alternative for low income students.



2) Lim, W. S. and Petrosino, A. J. (2018, April). Teacher Sensemaking Orientation as regard to Their Implementation Fidelity. Poster session presented at the 2018 Annual Convention of the American Educational Association Annual Conference, New York, NY.

Place: Monday 8.15am at Hilton midtown

Abstract: Using qualitative case study and numerous data resources (PD’s observation, survey, classroom observation and rating, interview, self-report, and artifacts collection) the research revealed six common perturbations for the occasion of sensemaking of program’s core components that shared by all teacher participants. They are, the value of PD in their classroom, their emotion and feeling regarding the implementation of the core components, the relevance of PD program to students needs, the relevance of PD to State Standard, the implementation network that operate within school, and time constraint. The occasions of sensemaking that arise only on the low fidelity implementers are, abundance of information gained from professional learning experiences, unclear of his roles and responsibilities to implement the core intervention components, unclear of setting and environment during implementation, and success measure of implementation are lacking. In the other hand, sensemaking of the high fidelity implementers is focusing on, availability and accessibility to instructional resources, accessibility of the experts, their current progression towards establishing student-centered classroom, and availability of planning time during the PD. The research also identifies four types of teacher’s implementation orientation as they make sense of the PD program. They are, (i) passive distributive, (ii) critical evaluative, (iii) creative emergent, and (iv) transformative. The research found that teacher sensemaking of PD is interconnected to their implementation. Thus, to study teacher sensemaking is not only to focus on how teachers make sense the PD program, it must also study how they implement it in the classroom.

3) Petrosino, A. J., Park, J., Park, S. (2018, April). Investigating Community of Practice Development During the Professional Development Summit Using Social Network Analysis. A paper presented at the 2018 Annual Convention of the American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, New York, NY.


Place: Monday 2:15 pm. The Parker ,3rd floor, Tansa 2 Room.

Abstract: This study explores the pre-existing and development of a social network during a National Science Foundation (NSF) professional development summit by using social network analysis and statistical analysis. Data originated from 34 participants. We wanted to quantify the level of each attendee’s social network expansion by measuring the levels of relationship with others at the conference through pretest and posttest. This characterizes networked structures in terms of nodes (individual actors) and the ties, edges, or links (relationships or interactions) that connect them. These networks are visualized through sociograms that nodes are represented as points and ties are represented as lines. Results from sociograms visualization demonstrated that most of participants had significant expansion of their social-network through professional development summit. 

Hoboken Board of Education Meeting- April 10, 2018 Full Agenda

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

AGENDA

HOBOKEN BOARD OF EDUCATION

158 FOURTH STREET, HOBOKEN, NJ 07030

(MEETING HELD IN DEMAREST AUDITORIUM, 158 FOURTH STREET, HOBOKEN, NJ 07030)

NJSBA BOARD MEMBER TRAINING 5:45 P.M.

PUBLIC MEETING 7:00 P.M.

  Hboe Full April 2018 by Anthony Petrosino on Scribd

SITE 2018 Poster- Petrosino et al. (2018)- Using Collaborative Agent-based Modeling to Explore Complex Phenomena in Pre- and In-service Teacher Education

Click to Enlarge 

The following posted was presented at the Annual Meeting of SITE 2018. The title of the poster was Using Collaborative Agent-based Modeling to Explore Complex Phenomena in Pre- and In-service Teacher Education and authors included Max Sherard, Jason Harron, and Mica Kohl. 

SITE, known as the ‘The Friendly Society’, is unique as the only organization which has as its sole focus the integration of instructional technologies into teacher education programs. SITE promotes the development and dissemination of theoretical knowledge, conceptual research, and professional practice knowledge through conferences, books, projects, and the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education (JTATE).

ABSTRACT: Teaching and learning about complex physical and social systems are important for preparing learners for life in the 21st century. However, Grotzer and Tutwiler (2014) explain that reasoning about these systems can be difficult when heuristic driven cognition “can derail an ability to discern and understand these complex causal features” (p. 97). Recent research shows that agent-based computer simulations have been used individually with students to promote learner’s understanding of complex systems (Rates, Mulvey, & Feldon 2016). Despite classrooms being group situated experiences; instruction typically engages only the individual by following the initiation - response - feedback (IRF) sequence (Wells, 1993).

  SITE 2018 - Poster by Anthony Petrosino on Scribd