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| February 2019 Hoboken Board of Education Meeting |
At the February 19, 2019 Hoboken Board of Education meeting, the head of schools addressed the general public and stated on the record that the Hoboken School district had never achieved a score of 80 or above (passing) in the QSAC DPR known as "Instruction and Program."I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you." -Fredrich Nietzsche
In fact, the Board's exact words are as follow:
"from 2008 through the 2014-2015 school year the district was able to point the ship in the right direction and the Hoboken public school district passed and has maintained passing scores in four out of five categories:1) operations, 2) personnel, 3) fiscal management and 4) operations. Unfortunately, the thorn in our side and the target of criticism has been in the Instruction and Program category. Up to this point the Hoboken public school district had not been able to achieve high performing district status because we did not score above an 80 in Instruction and Program (as indicated earlier the district's instruction and program score). In 2008 it was 34 and in 2014 the district score in this category rose to 45."
What was left out was that between the initial score of 34 in 2008 and the 45 score in 2014, the Hoboken School District- under my leadership and the hard work of dozens of teachers, administrators, and staff, achieved scores of 54% in August 2009, 77% in December of 2009, and finally a passing score of 87% in April of 2010!!! This has been a well known fact in the district and indisputable (see NJDOE communication's below).
To be clear, less than two years of curriculum writing and the addition of numerous instructional interventions and refinement, the Hoboken School District did achieve a score well above an 80 after the first comprehensive review of the new curriculum, test scores, instructional materials and professional development. The district I inherited did receive an initial QSAC score in INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM of 34% but in less then 2 short years, the score rocketed from 34% to 77% and peaked at 87% after a final QSAC review by the New Jersey Department of Education in spring 2010 (see Figure 1).
Unfortunately, once Mr. Raslowsky, Dr. Cella, and I left the district and the Kids First/"reform"/"Reach Higher, Hoboken" regime Board of Education took full control of the district, QSAC scores in INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM had plummeted to 45% in June of 2014 (see Figure 2). In fact, after receiving the 87% the district under the Kids First majority Board and the "leadership" of Superintendent Toback, Carter, and a host of others failed the QSAC DPR for the next 8 years.
“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
The Hoboken Board of Education stated on February 19th that: "Up to this point the Hoboken public school district had not been able to achieve high performing district status because we did not score above an 80 in instruction and program as indicated earlier the district's instruction and program score."
The Hoboken Board of Education's statement is rated as: FALSE/PANTS ON FIRE!
We will examine the "new" QSAC that was instituted this year and how passing the current QSAC INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM is not necessarily the same rigorous instrument the district passed with an 87% 9 years ago or the one it current received a score above 80% currently.
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| FIGURE 1: 2009-10 QSAC DPR INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM 87% |
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| FIGURE 2: 2013-14 QSAC DPR INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM 45% |
