Plagiarism: Is "Practice What You Preach" a Dead Concept?

N.J. Department of Education
100 River View Plaza
P.O. Box 500 Trenton, NJ 08625

Governor Chris Christie, Acting Commissioner Cerf:

It has been 4 months since we emailed Mr. Gilmartin a very important document concerning the state of our school district. There have been few changes in our district that may be considered for the better. Dr. Carlisle has NOT been evaluated. He has NOT sat down with the board and created goals and objectives tailored for the Englewood Public School District. Instead of following the instructions given in the QSAC, he simply copied verbatim the goals and objectives of Miller Place and the Brandon School district from 5 years ago. It  is our understanding that he must be evaluated based on whether he has achieved the goals agreed upon by he and the Board of Education. Many of New Jersey’s low achieving students have been lost in that chasm referred to as the Achievement GAP.  


A Governor's TASK FORCE has been created and charged "to provide the State Board and policymakers with recommendations for a statewide strategy to close the academic achievement gap by addressing proven correlatives of poor academic achievement. It will examine the themes of access; culture/climate;expectations; and strategies." We saw that as a ray of hope, because it meant that someone at the State Department was listening or was at the very least, aware. Yet, Dr. Carlisle has seen fit to cut & paste goals & objectives from districts that have no Achievement GAP and very few low achieving students. Our children deserve goals and objectives based on data collected regarding their educational experiences in our school system. The goals of  the Englewood Public School District should not emulate those of some out of the way mostly Caucasian town in New York state.

Miller Place Union Free School District Goals     

Englewood Public School District Goals 2011 - 2012 - presented on January 12,2012

Question:  How can the 5 year old goals of a district that has 91% White students, 2% Black Students, 3% Hispanic students and 3% Asian students have the EXACT SAME GOALS recently presented by Dr. Carlisle to our Board of Education? Examine for yourself the single digit percentages of students performing below standards. (3rd - 9%, 4th - 5%, 5th - 4%, 6th - 3%, 7th - 1%, and 8th - 2%)  Then check out the categories, such as "Improved Communication and Heightened Professionalism"? COPIED VERBATIM! 

It is also evident that the "Improved Student Achievement" goals found in the EPSD document have also been extracted from this same set of goals.  Two of Miller Place Union Free School District's 5 year goals mirror our current goals - EXACTLY!  Is it a surprise that the goals for "Providing a Safe and Secure Environment for Learning" and "Responsible Financial Stewardship" were also lifted, VERBATIM from the "Maximizing Quality and Value" wording used in the Miller Place Union Free School District's goals?

We have a few questions:

1. Why was Dr. Carlisle allowed to present the district goals to our community for the first time after being in the  district for a full year? (Posting online is like the United States Postal Service. The outside postage machine stamp will be accurate. Regardless of the (1/19/2011) date indicated on the PowerPoint, it is a simple thing to ascertain the actual date that the goals and objectives were really posted. We have documented inquiries requesting them.
2. Why do the goals of the district lack the specificity required of his predecessors and current building administrators? Pay close attention to the one that says he intends to promote up from within. Gee.

3. Why was it acceptable to state that board members "had a long day at work" as an excusable reason not to fulfill his responsibility to the community. We were not privy to the email that he sent out to Board Members containing the goals? Besides, they were supposed to create them together.

4. Why is it that no one on the current board CAUGHT A BLATANT PLAGIARISM OF IDEAS that are so central to the operation, educational health and Vision of our district? Why have they allowed this to happen?

5. Why is it that the goals were placed on the district website inaccurately stating that:
"These goals were presented to the Board of Education at a public meeting in January 2011”...Dr. Carlisle could not get through the first slide without the assistance of the PowerPoint that contained what was supposed to be the goals that he created in January of 2011. 

Updated Old Miller Place UnionFree School District (Same Goal Titles)

The exact same language also appears in the 2005 goals of the Brandon SchoolDistrict Board of Education.  

Goal 3. A. Develop proactive hiring and staff retention strategies, with a special focus on nurturing leadership "up from within."  

            B. Identify and address priority renovation...(Now does that sound familiar?)

We have referenced the Governance Section of the QSAC.  F. Annual Evaluative Process. F1, F2, F3,F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F4. The School board's annual evaluation of the CSA is based on the adoption of goals and performance measurement that reflect that highest priority is given to student achievement and attention to subgroup achievement.

Are our Laws guidelines that districts may choose not to follow whenever they like? Is this what is meant by giving districts more leeway towards being creative? Is this the reason NJ is requested a NCLB wavier? This Candidate for Superintendent has spent a full year making sure that he gets his money. He moved his office to the high school. He refers to the high school campus as 2 schools that need attention. So we have "the Cinderella Stepchild School" and the CTE one that the district promotes to outside towns as a School Choice. We have enough problems with division already. We have an apartheid system already. We don’t need more of that. The classroom next door to his office shares the same light switch as his office. The students are unable to view a movie without lights, because the lights in his office will go dark if they darken the classroom. His move to the high school is an impediment to learning. 

The Board of Education makes light of the QSAC in board meetings in front of us. Go to the videotape. http://youtu.be/NeaJ-xmwWtY  Are our Laws more like parley, and are guidelines for Englewood only?

We know how a student's academic life is altered once plagiarism has been proven. What happens to a Superintendent under the same circumstances? We deserve better. The "ugly truth" about this is that all of this information was ascertained without rigorous investigative research. We simply googled it. Is “practice what you preach” a dead concept in New Jersey Education?

We, the Citizens 4 Public Education believe that it is fair to openly question why our board is willing to publicly defy our Governor for an uncertified Superintendent who does not respect the children of Englewood enough to at least try to "MATCH" up our goals to districts with like challenges.

We, the Citizens 4 Public Education believe that it is also fair to openly question why the New Jersey State Department of Education is allowing a board of education that is 'persistently flouting the Laws of the State of New Jersey' to go on with business as usual.

We, the Citizens 4 Public Education openly question why the State Department of Education is NOT enforcing the Laws in Englewood, NJ? Do our children deserve any less than other towns?

Sincerely,

Lucy Walker 

of Citizens 4 Public Education

The New Accountability System: Why was Englewood City LEFT OFF?

Why was Englewood, New Jersey left off  the New Jersey Department of Education's List of Priority, Focus and Reward  schools? The 3 categories are described below. Have Englewood students been Left Behind, Again?


In developing a new accountability system, the Department of Education will create three tiers of schools, which will be identified using both growth and absolute proficiency. These schools will be identified during the summer, and interventions will begin in the 2012-13 school year:

A. Priority Schools: The Department will identify the lowest-performing five percent of Title I schools across the state using proficiency, growth, and graduation rates. Any non-Title I school that would otherwise meet the same criteria will also be designated as a Priority School.


B. Focus Schools: The Department will identify at least 10 percent of Title I schools as Focus Schools. These schools will be selected from Title I schools that are not categorized as Priority Schools and will be identified based upon achievement gaps between subgroups and low performance or graduation rates among particular subgroups. Any non-Title I school that would otherwise meet the same criteria will also be designated as a Focus School.

C. Reward Schools: The Department will identify Reward Schools based on high proficiency levels or high levels of growth, including progress toward closing achievement gaps. This will allow for a range of schools from across the state to attain Reward status, regardless of their absolute starting point.


Excerpts of Data gathered from North Jersey.com

5 Bergen ..................Bogota -  Bogota Jr   Sr  High Sch 

6 Bergen ..................Cliffside Park  - Number 6 

7 Bergen ..................Hackensack - Hackensack High 

8 Bergen ..................Hillsdale - George G White 

9 Bergen ..................New Milford  - David E  Owens M S 

10 Bergen ................Paramus - East Brook Middle 

11 Bergen ................Rochelle Park - Midland  No 1

At first glance, I assumed it was because it is impossible to be a School Choice and be a Priority or Focus School at the same time. It goes without saying that we are no where close to being a Reward School. That can't be the reason because Bogota is also a School Choice.


You may add that to the things that make you go Uhmmmmm....!

New Jersey Leads the Way with Call for Statewide

 Accountability System to Turn Around Failing Schools

New Jersey Department of Educations List of Priority, Focus and Reward Schools
http://www.nj.gov/education/grants/nclb/waiver/waiverapp.pdf#page=383

Are Our Schools In Crisis: Do You Know What Your Kindergarten Child Does All Day In School?

Top Ten Signs of a Quality Kindergarten

According to A Guide to Understanding Kindergarten Presented by the New Jersey Department of Education

1. Children are playing and working with materials or other children. They are not aimlessly wandering or forced to sit quietly for long periods of time.

2. Children have access to various activities throughout the day. Children are not all doing the same thing at the same time.

3. Teachers work with individual children, small groups, and the whole group at different times during the day. They do not spend time only with the entire group.

4. The classroom is decorated with children’s original; artwork, their own writing with invented spelling, and stories children dictated.

5. Children learn numbers and the alphabet in the context of their everyday experiences.

6. Children work on projects and have long periods of time (at least one hour) to play and explore. Filling out worksheets should not be their primary activity.

7. Children have an opportunity to play outside every day that weather permits. This play is never sacrificed for more instructional time.

8. Teachers read books to children throughout the day, not just at group story time.

9. The curriculum is adapted for those who are ahead as well as those who need additional help. Because children differ in experiences and background, they do not learn the same things at the same time in the same way.

10.Children and their parents look forward to school. Parents feel safe sending their child to kindergarten. Children are happy; they are not crying or regularly sick.

Learn More...The Truth About Kindergarten

NJ Kindergarten Implementation Guidelines

NJ Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten
Mathematics
English: Language Arts
Crisis in the Classroom: Why Children Need to Play In School

High Quality Kindergarten Today - video requires newer version of Adobe Flash Player
http://www.state.nj.us/education/ece/k/hqktoday/

                                    How are the children?

Bold Words: Enough Talk: WE Are Still Waiting on the World to Change

Reprinted from Governor's news release
Obama Administration Approves Governor Christie's Bold Education Reforms Contained In NCLB Waiver Application
New Jersey Leads the Way with Call for Statewide Accountability System to Turn Around Failing Schools

For Immediate Release
Contact: Michael Drewniak
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Kevin Roberts
609-777-2600

NJ Department of Education
You are all invited to have
school lunch on us in honor
of getting your
NCLB wavier
approved.

Trenton, NJ - Governor Christie today announced that the Obama Administration has approved the state's New Jersey's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver application for its bold and aggressive education reforms. The approval again demonstrates that Governor Christie's education reforms are not only comprehensive and ambitious in aiming to turn around failing schools and deliver a quality education to every student, but are part of a national, bipartisan reform movement being pursued by the Obama Administration and states around the country.

"We are once again proving that New Jersey is leading the way on the issues that matter most to our children's future and our shared future as a state and nation. The Obama Administration's approval of our education reform agenda contained in this application confirms that our bold, common sense, and bipartisan reforms are right for New Jersey and shared by the President and Secretary Duncan's educational vision for the country," said Governor Christie. "This is not about Democrats or Republicans - it is about pursuing an agenda in the best interest of our children whose educational needs are not being met, and those who are getting a decent education but deserve a great one."

The Christie Administration's NCLB application, submitted in November, is part of a broader effort to reform the state's overlapping and contradictory accountability systems and a comprehensive education reform agenda to increase academic standards, the effectiveness and talent of educators, and accountability for results in the classroom. Implementing the reforms outlined in the waiver makes New Jersey a leader in developing a new and more meaningful accountability system to better identify troubled schools, diagnose the causes of their struggles, and target our resources to improve the lowest-performing schools.

Governor Christie has advocated for four specific, bipartisan pieces of legislation that are needed to achieve the education reform goals agreed upon by the Christie and Obama Administrations in the NCLB waiver application. This package of bills, one of which has been enacted, goes hand in hand with the accountability system reforms in the waiver to fix failing schools and will result in greater school choice for students in underperforming districts, a system to identify and reward effective teachers, and supports for teachers who are not getting results for children.

"As we implement a new accountability system to more effectively assess, identify and intervene in troubled schools, we must also take the next steps to enact legislation to ensure our students have the most talented, effective teachers in classrooms and hurdles to innovation and creativity are removed. There is no single solution to turn around chronically failing schools or close the achievement gap. So, it is critical that the Legislature join me, standing alongside President Obama and Secretary Duncan, in providing the comprehensive set of tools needed to give every children in every part of our state the opportunity and hope that only comes with a quality education," concluded Governor Christie.

Among other changes through this waiver, New Jersey schools will no longer be subject to antiquated NCLB accountability provisions and sanctions required for not making Adequately Yearly Progress (AYP). Instead, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) will implement a fairer and more nuanced accountability system beginning in September 2012 that measures schools based on both growth and absolute attainment, and that focuses state resources on drastically improving those schools that are persistently failing and/or have large achievement gaps.

"During the past year, I heard from countless educators that the flaws of NCLB limited their ability to identify and improve areas of need in their schools. In partnership with educators across the state, we developed a new accountability system that will measure schools in part on what matters most - how much growth they make in a given year," said Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf. "In doing so, we will give unprecedented freedom to those schools that are doing well to continue to achieve without state or federal intervention. We will also be able to identify the 15 percent of schools that need the most help and make sure we target our resources to turning them around."

Over the course of October and November, the NJDOE received input and suggestions from hundreds of educators and others across the state on the application. On November 14, New Jersey was one of 11 states to apply for a waiver in the first round of applications. Since the NJDOE submitted its original application, the Department worked with the US Department of Education to clarify details of the application to make sure that the state holds all schools to a high bar while targeting resources to those schools that need the most support. A final version of the application can be found at the following link: http://www.nj.gov/education/grants/nclb/waiver/

As part of the waiver application, the Christie Administration outlined plans to act on three principles shared with the Obama Administration, including:
1) College and career ready expectations for all students;
2) State-developed differentiated recognition, accountability, and support; and
3) Supporting effective instruction and leadership.

In developing a new accountability system, the Department of Education will create three tiers of schools, which will be identified using both growth and absolute proficiency. These schools will be identified during the summer, and interventions will begin in the 2012-13 school year:

A. Priority Schools: The Department will identify the lowest-performing five percent of Title I schools across the state using proficiency, growth, and graduation rates. Any non-Title I school that would otherwise meet the same criteria will also be designated as a Priority School.


B. Focus Schools: The Department will identify at least 10 percent of Title I schools as Focus Schools. These schools will be selected from Title I schools that are not categorized as Priority Schools and will be identified based upon achievement gaps between subgroups and low performance or graduation rates among particular subgroups. Any non-Title I school that would otherwise meet the same criteria will also be designated as a Focus School.

C. Reward Schools: The Department will identify Reward Schools based on high proficiency levels or high levels of growth, including progress toward closing achievement gaps. This will allow for a range of schools from across the state to attain Reward status, regardless of their absolute starting point.

Through the development of 7 new Regional Achievement Centers, the Department will create customized interventions to turnaround Priority and Focus Schools, based on their individual needs. Among others, these interventions include a focus on improving instruction, using data to drive decision making, and expanding learning time. The Department will also develop financial bonuses for Reward Schools as well as opportunities to share best practices across the state.

In addition, the Department will completely redevelop its school Report Cards to share with schools significant information on their performance. These public reports will help schools and districts identify areas of strength and weakness, and will allow parents to see true performance levels at their child's schools.

"This next generation accountability system finds the right balance between holding all schools responsible for high levels of performance, while providing the flexibility from bureaucratic intervention that too often prevents them from succeeding," continued Acting Commissioner Cerf. "We will now continue to work with our educators to implement this new system next year and to make sure that every child in New Jersey graduates from high school ready for college and career."

Meet the TASK FORCE....

How are the childern?....We hear they are becoming carbohydrate junkies...

The Right to Read: Is it Being Trapped within the Achievement GAP?

"Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To use his own words, further, he said, "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master -- to do as he is told to do. Learning would SPOIL the best nigger in the world. Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy." These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty -- to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it. Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read."

-Frederick Douglass, Narrative of Frederick Frederick Douglas

 http://www.pbs.org/ktca/litandlife/chapters/chapter1.html

Images of Douglass are public domain and downloaded from: http://www.wpclipart.com/American_History/African_A_Rights/Frederick_Douglass.png.html