Hola Dual Langauge on Tiempo - September 22, 2019: Part 1 and 2

WABC- Hola Dual Langauge Program partners with Spanish Consolate 

Here are two wonderful videos about the Hola Dual Language School in Hoboken, NJ. Recently the school has partnered with the Spanish Consulate to provide students and teachers with cross cultural education. The program will last a full academic year with the possibility of extending. 

Jersey Journal - September 25, 2019
CLICK TO ENLARGE 

Regular readers will recall that Hola could have been in the Hoboken Public School system. I proposed it as a program but it was voted down in 2009. Since then, Hola has become recognized statewide, regionally, and now internationally as a leader in K-8 education. 

Read more about how the "reform" Hoboken Board of Education--  (Kids First and now their legacy in the Hoboken Board of Education who furthered a lawsuit against Hola) voted down the possibility of Hola being in the Hoboken Public Schools. 

"I am amazed at the amount of time we have spent discussing Hola when we have the kind of test scores we just saw from No Child Left Behind," said Lane Bajardi.

"Instead of spending the last six months figuring out how to spin Hola, we should have spent figuring out how to develop a progressive tutoring program," said Ruth McAllister who is currently running for school board. "The children that we have to worry about are these children that are failing now."

"Hoboken cannot afford a trendy new program where it is wanted but not needed," said Jean Marie Mitchell, a former Board member and president of Calabro PTA.

Those who voted "no" for Hola being in the Hoboken Public Schools were as follows:

Jimmy Farina -- no
Theresa Minutillo -- no
Rose Marie Markle - no
Carrie Gilliard - no "We cannot afford to do this - we're going to hurt our children that are here right now."

Since voting against Hola, the Hoboken School District is consistently at or near the bottom in county, state, and national rankings (more)...but first in social media tweets about how great everything is going. 

"Back to School" Video by Sandy Hook Promise

Survive the school year with these must-have back to school essentials. **Please note that this PSA contains graphic content related to school shootings that may be upsetting to some viewers. If you feel that this subject matter may be too difficult for you, you may choose not to watch this video.**

Follow on Twitter: @ajpetrosino

Replacing Sewage Lines- Hoboken, NJ - 2019 

FOLLOW ON TWITTER: @ajpetrosino
Dr. Petrosino is a product of the Hoboken Public Schools where he also taught for 4 years at Hoboken High School and where he was the Assistant Superintendent of Schools for the Hoboken Public Schools during the 2007-08 to 2009-10 school years. He is a founder of the Hola Dual Language School and writes extensively about public education...with a regular focus on Hoboken, NJ. 

Before joining the faculty at The University of Texas, Dr. Petrosino was a Postdoctoral Fellow at The National Center For Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science (NCISLA) at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Petrosino's doctoral work was completed at Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, he was an active member of the Learning Technology Center. His Master's was completed at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Petrosino is the author or co-author of over 40 peer reviewed journal articles in publications such as American Educational Research Journal, Mathematical Thinking and Learning, Journal of Science Education and Technology, and The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 100+ national and international research-based conference presentations, 17 book chapters and numerous invited presentations. He has participated in research presentations and collaborations with colleagues from China, Mexico, Italy, Germany, and Australia. He currently has three active research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF).  

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In Memoriam

Photo by Gary Hershorn

Grand Opening- Little Linguists Brings Bilingual Education to Hoboken Families

Official Opening of Little Linguists- Hoboken, NJ
September 2019 

¡Felicidades to our friends at Little Linguists on their ribbon-cutting today! Bilingualism is a superpower! 🦸🏽

Congrats to Little Linguists..Hoboken's Language Nursery! — with Little Linguists..Hoboken's Language Nursery.


Congratulations to Susan Costomiris and Margarita Garcia for this exciting new venture in bringing more choices to the families in Hoboken, NJ. For more information, please click HERE.



Susan Costomiris- is a Hoboken mom of an eighth-grade student at HoLa. She has been a Board Trustee of HoLa since 2009. She is also a board member of HOPES since 2015. Susan’s background is in Finance and Project Management.

Margarita Garcia- is a life-long Hoboken resident. Margarita is currently Hoboken Dual Language Charter School’s (HoLa) Summer Camp, Aftercare and Enrichment Coordinator since 2010. Previously Margarita worked as a Unit Director at the Boys and Girls Club, and at Stevens Cooperative.

Bilingualism is a very much examined and all around recorded research subject. Well-known sentiment is separated concerning what constitutes an appropriate bilingual child, and what benefits they may harvest from learning two dialects at the same time instead of acing one at that point acquainted with the others. At Little Linguists we immovably trust that a bilingual education readies any child for life all around of childcare and school.
Inside Little Linguists

Most ‘traditional’ daycares and schools center around the advancement of one dialect before acquainting one with a second or third dialect. We see, as proper bilingual training, the ideal approach, is presenting the kids to a second dialect at a considerably more youthful age, actualizes liquid learning forms, ESL educating and immersion, and thoughtfulness regarding two dialects paying little heed to a local foundation. The question is, what do the children take away from figuring out how to talk two dialects fluidly from such a youthful age?

Email info@llhoboken.com for pricing information. Please specify child’s age and if you are interested in full time, part time or after school care. 

Hoboken Ranked 102nd of 513 New Jersey Towns - New Jersey Monthly

Italian Feast Fireworks - Madonna Dei Martiri- Sept. 2019

New Jersey Monthly has released its rankings of the best (and worst) places to live across New Jersey. According to the publication, Hoboken is the 102nd best place to live. The survey ranks 513 towns from top to bottom.

In compiling New Jersey Monthly's 2019 Top Towns list, researchers at Leflein Associates, an independent research firm based in Ringwood, considered five categories to represent the quality of life in New Jersey's 565 municipalities: home values, property taxes, crime rate, school performance and a lifestyle factor.

Chart Top Towns 2019 by Tony Petrosino on Scribd

Due to a lack of statistically significant data, towns with populations under 1,500 were dropped from the survey. The research team ranked each of the remaining 513 towns based on the following indicators:

1) average residential tax bill (2018);
2) change in average property tax bill (2016-2018);
3) effective property tax rate for 2018;
4) median home-sales price (2018);
5) change in median home-sales price (2016-2018);
6) average days homes were on the market (2018);
7) total crime rate (2016);
8) violent-crime rate (2016);
9) ranking in New Jersey Monthly’s Top Public High Schools chart (published September 2018);
10) and a lifestyle factor that considers the number of acute-care hospitals and live performing-arts theaters within 10 miles of the municipality’s main zip code, number of restaurants within two miles of the municipality’s main zip code, and average commute time for those working away from home.

The final rankings were based on each municipality’s combined rankings for the 10 indicators. Extra weighting was given to the Effective Tax Rate and Top High Schools indicators.

The following sources were used: NJ Department of Local Government Services (for population figures); NJ Division of Taxation (for property taxes); NJ Division of Taxation/Office of Property Administration (for home-sales prices); New Jersey Realtors (for time on the market); NJ Division of State Police (Uniform Crime Report); NJ Hospital Association (hospital locations); NJ Council for the Arts and NJ Theater Alliance (theater locations); Yelp.com searches (restaurant locations); and the U.S. Census/American Community Survey (commute times). The annual crime rate and violent crime rate are based on reported crimes per 1,000 residents.

Pre-K funding announced for 28 more NJ school districts

Hoboken Waterfront- September 2019 

Gov. Phil Murphy announced Tuesday $20 million in state aid that will fund pre-K in 28 new school districts beginning Oct. 1.

The 28 school districts are located across New Jersey, including in Hudson, Atlantic and Ocean counties. This comes after the governor announced funding to bring high-quality preschool programs to 64 school districts last school year.

"Every single dollar we invest in pre-K helps make New Jersey a more affordable place for our diverse middle class and working families, like those right here in Union City, to raise their families," Gov. Murphy said.

School Districts Receiving New or Additional Preschool Aid in 2019-2020

COUNTY	DISTRICT	AMOUNT
Atlantic	Buena Regional	$1,032,077
Atlantic	Somers Point	$456,163
Atlantic	Weymouth	$213,006
Burlington	Beverly City	$498,242
Burlington	Burlington Twp.	$213,006
Burlington	Edgewater Park	$478,287
Camden	Gloucester Twp.	$1,451,363
Camden	Mount Ephraim	$451,535
Cape May	Dennis Twp.	$622,750
Cape May	Middle Twp.	$687,686
Essex	Belleville	$892,452
Gloucester	Glassboro	$717,664
Gloucester	National Park	$214,398
Hudson	Kearny	$2,661,345
Hunterdon	High Bridge	$273,120
Mercer	Princeton	$721,439
Middlesex	Sayreville	$2,799,800
Monmouth	Farmingdale	$157,764
Monmouth	Ocean Twp.	$586,772
Morris	Dover	$1,177,174
Morris	Netcong	$188,230
Ocean	Ocean Twp.	$971,584
Ocean	Tuckerton	$679,140
Passaic	Woodland Park	$261,360
Salem	Mannington	$226,711
Sussex	Montague	$730,296
Sussex	Stillwater Twp.	$286,902
Union	Winfield	$349,674

Source: N.J. Department of Education.

N.J. has the No. 1 Public Schools in the Nation- Education Week

Hotel Victor Sign- Hoboken, NJ 2019
Photo: Lenny DiBrango

New Jersey has the best state education system in the country thanks largely to the high amount of money it spends on its schools, according to a new national ranking.
Education Week, a national industry publication, looked at 39 categories, including school finance, academic achievement and socioeconomic factors, to rank the states’ school systems for its annual “Quality Counts” report.
Massachusetts has come out on top in the last few years. But, this year New Jersey pulled slightly ahead in a “photo finish,” according to the ranking.
It is the first time New Jersey has ever ranked No. 1 in Education Week’s analysis. The state scored a grade of 87.8 -- or a B+.
“Massachusetts fell short of the top spot by just a few hundredths of a point on the combined scores,” Education Week said.
Massachusetts was followed by Connecticut, Maryland and New Hampshire in the top spots.
New Jersey was able to pull ahead partly because of the amount of money it spends on its taxpayer-funded school systems, the report said.
“New Jersey has an advantage over Massachusetts in both spending and equity. It ranks sixth for per-pupil expenditures at $16,543, while Massachusetts is 13th at $14,529 once figures are adjusted for regional cost differences,” the report said.
New Jersey devotes 4.8 percent of its total tax dollars to education, the third-highest in the nation, and one of the reasons it topped the list this year, the analysis said.
New Jersey also did a better job of making sure funding was more evenly distributed between wealthy and poor school districts, according to the statistics.
At Wednesday’s state Board of Education meeting in Trenton, state Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet said he was extremely proud to hear about New Jersey’s ranking, but not surprised.
“For years, we have been ranked No. 1 in our mind because of the work that we do,” Repollet said.
Less wealthy states continued to score poorly with Mississippi ranking as the worst state in the nation for education with a score of 68.5 -- or a D+.
Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nevada and New Mexico were also at the bottom of the list.
Overall, the United States earned a grade of C for its education system.
“Major differences in educational performance separate high-performing school systems in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions from lower-performing systems elsewhere in the nation,” the report said.
“Where you grow up has an impact on the educational opportunities available to you,” according to the analysis.
Staff writer Adam Clark contributed to this report.
Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporteron Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Hoboken City Council Votes for Eminent Domain for Union Dry Dock Property

NJDOE Data Finds Joseph F. Brandt School the Most Segregated School in Hoboken for 2018-19; Latest NJDOE Ratings of All Hoboken Public Schools

Land swap between Hoboken, developer signals end to 

marathon legal fight over waterfront site

The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) recently released official enrollment data for the 2018-19 school year for all public schools in New Jersey. According tot the NJDOE there are 2,517 public schools operating in 585 school districts. There are also 88 charter schools in the state. There are 2000 elementary schools and 517 secondary schools in New Jersey. State Aid for public education in New Jersey is 8.03 billion dollars. Public School enrollment in New Jersey is 1,370,000 students and charter school enrollment is 51,993. There are 116,351 classroom teachers earning a median salary of $67,602. The median salaries for Administrators and Supervisors is $159,845; District Superintendents is $121,112 and Principals is $125,054.

While statewide data in interesting, data specific to Hoboken is of particular interest to many of my readers. This post will focus specifically on two pieces of data--1) percentage of white students in each Hoboken City Public School and the percentage of students qualifying for Free or Reduced Lunch.

First, we will look at the percentage of students identified by the district as "white." A quick look at the data shows Joseph F. Brandt School as having the highest percentage of students identified as white by the district and  Hoboken High School having the lowest percentage of enrolled students the district identifies as white. 

Click to Enlarge 

Second, we will look at the percentage of students identified by the district as receiving "free or reduced lunch." This is often a measure of poverty in educational policy and research. Those with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals. For the 2016–2017 school year (most recent data), a household of three earning $26,208 or less would qualify for free school meals and a family of three earning up to $37,296 would qualify for reduced-price school meals.
A quick look at the data shows Brandt having the lowest percentage of students identified as being of poverty in the district and Connors School having the highest percentage of enrolled students the district identifies as coming from poverty.

Click to Enlarge

It is important to realize that Brandt School is a school that the district has slowly been transforming over the past few years. Beginning first as a school with some pre-school providers housed inside (PreK), the Hoboken Board of Education and district administrators have slowly and quietly been adding additional grades to the school with each passing year. For the 2018-19 school year, Brandt School was a PK-3 school, Grades 1, 2 and 3 being added over the previous years. 

Joseph Brandt School- Hoboken, NJ

The NJDOE data clearly shows that for the 2018-19 school year Brandt School was by far the most segregated school in the City of Hoboken. The school has the highest percentage of Hoboken City district identified white students and the lowest percentage of Hoboken City district students identified as living in poverty. A significant percentage of the student population at Brant has been added over the past number of years with the addition of early elementary grades 1, 2, and 3. Brandt was transformed from an all preschool building to an  early elementary school. Therefore these demographic data must be by design and not simply by happenstance. 

Interesting, given the Hoboken Board of Education initiated litigation a few years ago against the Hola Dual Language School claiming the charter school was causing "white flight" in the district.
Finally, the NJDOE data shows clearly that less than 50% of the Hoboken City School district qualifies for free or reduced lunch dispelling the excuse that low test scores in the district are because a majority of students are living in poverty. Here are NJDOE scores (0-100) that were reported in March of 2019. The NJDOE ratings were established to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The ratings for high schools are based on graduation and absenteeism rates and PARCC scores, while elementary and middle school scores are based on absenteeism, PARCC and student progress on PARCC tests, according to the New Jersey Department of Education:

• SALVATORE R. CALABRO, HOBOKEN CITY, HUDSON 87.15
• HOBOKEN DUAL LANGUAGE CHARTER SCHOOL, HOLA HOBOKEN DUAL LANG CS, CHARTERS 70.63
• HOBOKEN CHARTER SCHOOL, HOBOKEN CS, CHARTERS 64.25
• ELYSIAN CHARTER SCHOOL OF HOBOKEN, ELYSIAN CS OF HOBOKEN, CHARTERS 61.86
• THOMAS G. CONNORS, HOBOKEN CITY, HUDSON 41.85
• HOBOKEN HIGH SCHOOL, HOBOKEN CITY, HUDSON 38.78
• WALLACE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, HOBOKEN CITY, HUDSON 35.79
• HOBOKEN MIDDLE SCHOOL, HOBOKEN CITY, HUDSON 15.89

Why has the Hoboken Board of Education created the most segregated school in the city?


Why are NJDOE ratings so low given the current demographics of the Hoboken Public Schools? 

Why isn't anyone tweeting about these issues? Or posting on social media? 

Documenting the White Exodus and Stable Black and Hispanic Enrollment of the Hoboken Public Schools: NJDOE 2018-19 Enrollment Data

Hoboken Opens 2-Acre Public Park at Seventh Jackson & Monroe Sts
June 2019 

The 2018-19 New Jersey Department of Education's Enrollment District Reported Data contains a great deal of information concerning enrollment data for all public school districts in New Jersey. This is data which all school districts in New Jersey are required to report to the Department of Education. This data provides a backdrop for this post. 

I have been teaching a course entitled "Learning Science and STEAM Reform"  for graduate students in STEM Education as well as doctoral students in Educational Administration. As part of the course, we read a book by Dr. Molly Makris entitled "Public Housing and School Choice: Youth Experiences of Uneven Opportunity"published by Palgrave Macmillan. The book was the winner of the 2016 AESA Critics' Choice Book Award. The book uses an interdisciplinary approach to urban education policy to examine the formal education and physical environment of young people from low-income backgrounds and demonstrate how gentrification shapes these circumstances. The book looks specifically at students from the City of Hoboken but resonates with educators and researchers from all over the country. 

One phenomena described in the book is the enrollment of students in the public school system. I have updated some of the data to include the most recent Hoboken Public School enrollment data for the 2018-19 school year and have created 3 charts of K-12 district enrollment by gender for three subgroups of students- specifically, subgroups that the district identifies as white, black, and hispanic. I have also created a fourth chart which attempts to look at socio-economic trends in the district. 

The 2018-19 data indicate some interesting trends-- most obvious is the consistent decline of white students from the Hoboken Public Schools beginning in late elementary school as opposed to the fairly stable black and hispanic populations. How pronounced is this phonemena? In kindergarten there are a total of 195 white students (86 of which were identified as female by the district) but by senior year (12th grade) in Hoboken High School there are only 9 white students (1 of which was identified as female by the district). 

Students the district identified as black or hispanic actually show a slight increase during the high school years. I suspect this is due to the over 158 students the district brings into town for the "Choice" program (see also this post for additional information about the CHOICE program on district and high school enrollment). 

Figure 1: 2018-19 White Enrollment by Grade and Gender
Hoboken Public School District
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Figure 2: 2018-19 Black Enrollment by Grade and Gender
Hoboken Public School District
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Figure 3: 2018-19 Hispanic Enrollment by Grade and Gender
Hoboken Public School District
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Questions to reflect upon....

What factors might be contributing to the K-12 enrollment trend for white students? 

What factors might be contributing to the K-12 enrollment trend for black students? 

What factors might be contributing to the K-12 enrollment trend for hispanic students? 

Finally, here is a chart (Figure 4) that contains a fair amount of information concerning percentage "free or reduced lunch" status, enrollment by grade, and additional trend lines as of October 2018 (latest data available). 

Figure 4: Enrollment and FRL Percentages
Hoboken School District
Data: NJDOE - ASSA Report October 2018 

What additional information does this chart provide in addition to Figures 1, 2, and 3 and the Makris book? 

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Hoboken Opens 2-Acre Public Park at Seventh Jackson & Monroe Sts

Hoboken Opens 2-Acre Public Park at Seventh Jackson & Monroe Sts

Hoboken Opens 2-Acre Public Park at Seventh Jackson & Monroe Sts