Lakewood School Board President Leonard Thomas resigned last week because, according to the Asbury Park Press, he “has grown tired of demanding basic rights for public school students while the school board allocates money for courtesy and hazardous busing to private school students.”
The CEO of the School Development Authority, Marc Larkins, declined to appear before the Assembly Education Committee, which wanted to interview him about the slow pace of construction for long-planned projects, says the Star-Ledger. Here's the Assembly Democrats' irate press release.
Winner of the contest for school district with the lowest SAT scores? Asbury Park High School, according to the Asbury Park Press. On a scale of 200-800, the average math score was 340, the average reading score was 339, and the average essay score was 332. If you want to check your district's scores, go here.
If you're tired of looking at the DOE's database for School Report Cards information, you can use NJSpotlight's.
The Record looks at the connection between requiring school uniforms and rates of bullying.
U.S. News & World Report, reports the New York Times, will publish an assessment of teachers’ colleges, assigning grades of A to F. If the schools don’t supply data, US News will attempt to obtain them through open records law and if that doesn’t work the schools will get an F.
EducationNext examines how Teach for America, the organization that puts new college graduates into poor urban schools, has "succeeded in producing dynamic, impassioned, and entrepreneurial education leaders." Also, Andrew Rotherham in Time Magazine looks at 5 myths about TFA, the organization that the education establishment loves to hate.
Comic Relief: A Texas Representative has introduced a bill that would allow school board members and superintendents to carry concealed weapons to school board meetings.