Author Archive
What Getting Thrown Out Of High School Taught Me About Equity | Op-Ed
When I was 14 years old, the principal of my school asked me a simple question that did not have a simple answer. “Barbara, what’s your address?” It wasn’t so simple because minutes earlier, I had been pulled out of class and told to collect my things from my locker and come to her office….Read More…
NEW JERSEY CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION NAMES BARBARA MARTINEZ AS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
NEW JERSEY CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION NAMES BARBARA MARTINEZ AS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Newark Native, Education Advocate and Veteran Investigative Journalist Takes Reigns of Leading Non-Profit Dedicated to Improving Public Schools [Newark, New Jersey – September 21, 2023] The New Jersey Children’s Foundation (NJCF) announced today that it has named Newark native, education advocate and veteran investigative journalist…Read More…
A Major Milestone.
Newark Common App, the new, state-of-the art school enrollment platform in Newark, recently passed a major milestone: releasing the initial round of school matches for the 2023-24 school year to all Newark families who applied by the March 6 deadline. Newarkers demanded an easier, more transparent and equitable school enrollment process – and in its…Read More…
A Successful Start For Newark Common App.
I promised I’d have more to say about our exciting new enrollment system Newark Common App and now that we’ve completed the initial phase of the application process (after extending the March 3 deadline to March 6) I think it’s a good time to take stock of our initial results. Just to review, Newark Common App is…Read More…
Don’t Believe the Hype: Growing Charter Schools Is Not a ‘Zero Sum” Proposition.
There’s a thing that happens when you do anything that supports charter schools: you get labeled “pro-charter” and then, magically, your views on basically every other issue in education get disqualified by some. You’d be surprised at the amount of time some people spend worrying about whether they’ll get invited to certain events, or what…Read More…
No School Was Immune To Learning Loss.
Posted OnJanuary 26, 2023 byThe COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lock-downs wreaked havoc on the health of Newark families, on the economic vitality of our city, and on the educational achievement of our children. With some small variance, remote learning was the norm in the 18 or so months from March 2020 when schools first closed, to September 2021, when…Read More…
We Should All Join the “War on Learning Loss”
As the world strives to return to normalcy, every week seems to bring us a deeper appreciation of the scale of learning loss and the human toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Newark the last two weeks delivered us the sad news that 9 of 10 students in Newark’s district schools are projected to fail…Read More…
NEW JERSEY CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION LAUNCHES MY SCHOOLS NEWARK
NEW JERSEY CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION LAUNCHES MY SCHOOLS NEWARK Online platform and web app to provide parents with empowering free digital research tool and ‘one-stop-shop’ with information on every school in Newark Newark, NJ – Today, the New Jersey Children’s Foundation (NJCF) announced the launch of My Schools Newark, a new online research tool and mobile-friendly…Read More…
The Human Toll of Anti-Charter Animus
Saying yes to expansion requests by top-performing schools would have cost the Murphy Administration almost nothing. The cost of saying no, however, is that hundreds of children across the state will have their education upended yet again, on the heels of two years of pandemic-related upheavals that exacerbated our already massive academic achievement gaps.Read More…