Summer Packets

My grandson's newest little saying is "don't judge me"

This is his answer for everything.

Today, the 4th grader and 1st grader were trying very hard not to work on their summer packets for school. I asked my grandson, the 1st grader what his new Teacher would think of him if he did not hand in his summer packet completed.

He cocked his head to one side, raised his left eyebrow, touched his finger to his lips and asked a serious question.

"Are you trying to say that she is going to judge me, grandma?"

When I said yes, that is exactly what she is going to do, he started to work until he had only one page left. Whatever it takes.....because we all know that is exactly what the teachers are going to do.

To all teachers:
Make sure you collect those packets. That is the very first homework from your new young students. You are the one who ultimately makes homework meaningful. If you never acknowledge, collect, correct or just use check marks, they know that you place no value on the work that you are giving them to complete at home.

He sends this to his new teacher.

Will STEM Education Help Achieve Reward School STATUS?

#FullSTEAMahead - http://www.ed.gov/stem

Grants like this one from the NJSBA are totally ignored by EPSD. We pay a healthy salary to an Administrator supposedly to write Grants for the District. When is the last time we actually got a Grant that benefited all of Englewood's children?

Why do we continue to allow EPSD to avoid STEM Education? Last year, the idea was proposed by the DMHS Principal and a backlash ensued that created such an uproar, from out of town parents, that we had to re-focus our attention on preventing the Superintendent and the BOE from transferring this Principal to the Elementary School. All he did was make a proposal that benefits all Englewood children. That my friends is called "intimidation" in the real world.

Is EPSD a failure Factory? The entire Educational World is embracing STEM/STEAM Education, yet Englewood plods along using the same old failing strategies as for the last 15 years educating only about 15% of the children. Are your children in that 15%? Google STEM Education and you will see that I am not exaggerating.
Where does that leave our children?

It is time to demand STEM Education for children pre k - 12 for ALL Englewood children.

Everyone fights for a raise. Who fights for our children?

Answer: There is no invisible force out there fighting for our children. Parents cannot depend on EPSD employees to fight for our children. When one stands up one is put in a room with no windows (with the objective that one will quit and go away) and told to shut up and use some tact. Do we need tact or Academic success for all children? If we don't fight for our own children, no one will.

• Failure is inevitable. It is already upon us. Our high school is still a FOCUS SCHOOL. 
• Next step on the failure trail is to become a PRIORITY School. 

Becoming a PRIORITY School moves away from the positive, which is to become a Reward School. 

PRIORITY SCHOOL DESIGNATION means the state may come in and break up our high school like Weequahic in Newark. Last I heard, Weequahic is now 4 Charters. Students living across the Street from (Weequahic) their former high school must now apply to the charters. If refused, they must find another school someplace else to attend. Charters may refuse students. That is the main reason that it is unfair to compare Charters to Public Schools. Public Schools cannot refuse students who satisfy resident requirements. How many Charters do you think Dwight Morrow High School can accommodate?  Does anyone within yelling distance want DMHS to be taken over and divided into Charters?

Next Englewood Public School District

Board of Education Meeting
Thursday, August 13, 2015
8:00 pm
Grieco Elementary School

STEM Education for all. Science, Technology, Engineering, Math

Demand that our BOE support Success and NOT Failure.
https://www.magnetmail.net/Actions/email_web_version.cfm?publish=newsletter&user_id=NJSBA&message_id=10720501

Work At Home Must Supplement, NOT Supplant Work At School

READING IS STILL FUNDAMENTAL...

A Series of Books is NOT a Reading Program.
A series of books is simply part of the materials list used in the Reading Program's Curriculum.

In each Curriculum, Projected Resources must be listed. The Reading Series are Resources.

A Reading Program is Curriculum inclusive of this Series of "Readers" that are vertically aligned to match the Literacy Curriculum.

This Literacy Curriculum includes units, week to week and day to day lessons with individual and classroom hands on activities. This Curriculum includes activities that address all learning styles of all children. This is called Differentiated Teaching or Instruction and Learning. It insures that your child will not be LEFT BEHIND, BECAUSE HE OR SHE LEARNS DIFFERENTLY. It reaches out to each student's individual ability and builds from there. Development of this program must be left to and demanded of the Professionals, not School Board Members. School Board Members have not been trained and do not have the information or the expertise to make the decisions. The School Board Member's job is to create policy based on the LAW and Legislation that mandates the creation of programs that address the Academic needs of ALL students. They are further tasked with the responsibility to make certain that the Professionals adhere to such policy.

It is a vertical Program that goes from Pre K - 8th grade or whatever the creators decide. Parents should be able to tell very

quickly whether or not the child has met or exceeded grade level without a diagnostic test. A quality Reading Program provides Teachers with a road map. Back in the day, when Professionals were allowed to do their jobs and the hard work of good teachers was rewarded with great students, teachers were trusted to create this Curriculum.

It will encourage ALL children to become better readers and better students. Even

the children who have parents who think their children have gotten the best are missing out on a world of information and practice when a School District does not have a VERTICALLY ALIGNED AND ARTICULATED Pre k - 8 Reading Program. (Check the language in your QSAC mandates from the state.)

We, as Parents, Grandparents, Guardians, Clergy, Politicians, Everybody has a responsibility to fight for the children's right to quality Reading Instruction. It is what will make our Society strong and keep the jail cells empty.

If it feels like your school district is forcing you to teach your children to read, they probably are. Work with your children at

home is supposed to supplement what happens at school, not supplant (replace) it. Remember that. Supplement, not supplant.
Avid Readers make better Cops, Teachers, Doctors, Lawyers, Dentists, Foreign Policy Makers, Congressman, Legislators, Senators, Firemen, Plumbers, Electricians, Farmers School Board Members and Presidents. I am sure you get the picture. If not, get a clue.

Reading is more fundamental than ever before. Do not allow your school district to down play the teaching of reading. There is no getting away from the fact that there will be standardized tests. If

not PARCC, then some other. The test will not only assess reading skill, it will assess mastery of English Grammar. Question whether or not this is being taught. 

Do this for your children. 

Do this for your country that is lagging behind other countries where English is not even the first language.

Math is a Language that cannot be championed without adequate reading skills. The TEST that will determine the rest of your child's life is given in ENGLISH. Students must Read to Write to Communicate to Survive.

Ask questions. Make sure that the Diagnostic used in your School District is not assessing something that has NOT been taught. That is unfair to your child and his/her Teachers. It is unfair to all of the Professionals that we pay. Make sure that your child's Teacher knows him/her and is not just making flowery comments to satisfy the job of creating a Report Card. 

Demand Accountability from everyone, including yourselves.

Join the Crusade to create better Readers.

http://www.ed.gov/early-learning

SCHOOL CHOICE: What Extra Money?

Key words: "extra money"The State of New Jersey gives a School District $10,500 per student in School Choice Funds. As long as the students are integrated into the population of the school without adding programs designed just for them, all is well.
Problems arise when the out of district students and their parents demand to be "segregated academically", recognized as different schools, and educated in different buildings from the home district students.

Problems arise when it becomes clear that money is being drained away from the entire home district in order to support a program financially that caters to out of district students and their parents. At DMHS, the "Extended Day" and the "late bus" add extra expenditures that make the educational model far too expensive. It should be evaluated and changed. This change should have been made in 2009. The problem grows more deeply into the fabric of the school, every year the situation is not addressed.

Then we come down to the real problem. Why do School Choice parents want their children to attend a FOCUS School (a school in danger of failing)? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that they may have a sanctioned Apartheid Education without having to deal with opposition in their own districts. School Choice has wreaked havoc in Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, NJ. Contrary to the situations described in the article, there is no extra money. There is extra apathy.

It cost over $21,000 to educate a student in Englewood last year. According to the article, the state gave Choice Districts $10,500 per student? Do the Math. Who paid the rest? The residents of Englewood paid the rest. We, the residents of Englewood are paying "extra" to have our high school segregated academically. In the northjersey.com article, the Fort Lee parent spoke of STEM. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) She chose to send her son to Bergenfield, because of the STEM education program.

We tried to convince our Board to create a STEM program at Dwight Morrow high school. School Choice Program parents and an elite few Englewood Parents screamed in opposition. It was not very pretty. They were clear that they wanted Academic Segregation and did not care about the decaying climate and culture of our high school. They are not concerned about the academic achievement of the entire high school population. Some of the parents demanded that the entire high school administration be removed for suggesting a plan that would cause them to lose their identity within our school population. It brings these words to mind...when in Rome....

In every other School in New Jersey that accepts School Choice students, there is a profit. In Englewood, there is a deficit.

One parent, who lives in Englewood Cliffs (and DMHS has been their HS 50 years or more) suggested that we were trying to play on the same basketball court as Michael Jordan. He said that we could have tea, coffee or go to after party with Michael Jordan, but never be on basketball court in his way.

The Flip side of that argument is that Scottie Pippin and other teammates helped Michael Jordan shine and become the billionaire that he is today.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-limits-its-school-choice-program-1.1262801?fb_action_ids=971262369565288&fb_action_types=og.comments

Our Schools Are In Crisis: Life In the Petri Dish

Beginning March 2, 2015 children in grades 3 -11 will take a standardized online test called the PARCC. 

It is extremely important that all families understand the enormous change that is coming about in the lives of our children. Your children will be anxious and will need your love and understanding more than ever before. The information in this post is intended to provide you with the information currently available about the experiment that is the PARCC online standardized test.  

Save and read these documents thoroughly.

This is the latest OFFICIAL update on the PARCC from the NJ Department of Education. It contains comparisons between the PARCC TEST and the ones your children took in the past. (NJASK, HSPA) A letter from David Hespe, Commissioner of Education State of New Jersey.

PARCC refusal information is included from the Statewide organization.

Save our Schools New Jersey.  .

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If you are not refusing the Test, you must still actively participate in order to help your child do well. Please share this email with your friends and neighbors. 

• Your children will need more rest and support during this crucial time. Help them reduce this inevitable stress. You know what makes your child feel happy and secure.
• Experts agree that teenagers and young children need 8-10 hours of sleep in order to be well rested and ready to perform.
• If you transport your children to school, make sure that they are on time.They should get up earlier.
• They should eat a good breakfast with as little sugar as possible.
• If your child eats breakfast at school and takes the bus, pay close attention to the bus schedule. Make sure that the bus gets your child to school early enough to eat a breakfast low in sugar. A hungry child will not do well on the test.
• Understand that the young children may not know how to communicate their feelings of stress and anxiety. (Grades 3-11 will be tested online.) 
• The test will last several days. Check the calendar.
• Look for signs of stress and allow your children time to decompress when they come home from school. A good cup of hot chocolate or whatever makes your child feel loved and nurtured will go a long way in helping them feel more confident.
• Random hugs and kisses will definitely ease the anxiety.
• Please plan ahead. 

This is the link to Englewood's corrected PARCC standardizd testing schedule.  Check this calendar on the Englewood Public School District Website regularly. Contact your child's school if you have problems.
http://www.epsd.org/calendars/District-Calendar/month

UPDATED: Graduation Requirements for the classes of 2016, 2017, and 2018

A List of Refusals by County

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vnj8-q0G7ILqbMIa9qytSt-tChIAIwnjIhWajT0xJMQ/edit?usp=sharing

Step by Step Refusal Information

http://www.saveourschoolsnj.org/save/corefiles/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Refusing-High-Stakes-Testing-a-Step-by-Step-Guide.pdf

Pearson's Test Coordinator Manual For Teachers

http://avocet.pearson.com/PARCC/Home#q=agreement

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." Frederick Douglass

                             "...And how are the children?"