Cell phones

As summer begins to wind down, most high school seniors will turn their thoughts to a new year filled with Friday night football games, college applications, and for some, driving to school instead of taking the bus. They will begin to feel like real adults, making decisions that will have a profound effect on their futures.

As a veteran teacher, I hope to help them with an increasingly more difficult problem: how they manage their cell phones.

This year I will start by telling them about Robbinsville School Superintendent Steven Mayer. He was killed while jogging in April, allegedly by a high school senior. The driver, now 18, has been charged with death by auto and leaving the scene of a fatal motor-vehicle accident. According to authorities, the woman was on her phone at the time of the accident.Mayer was 52 years old, a man with a wife and three sons. I cannot imagine the pain and grief his family has been going through - all because a high school senior was allegedly on her cell phone while driving.

As many of my former students can attest, I have been sounding the alarm in my classroom regarding cell phone use for a very long time. While most students will at least try to hide that they are sending a message or checking the latest tweet, it's still terribly disruptive.

I have appealed to their moral conscience: "Checking a cell phone signals that you don't value the teacher or the learning environment."

I have appealed to their intellect: "Being on your phone means you might miss something important in the lesson."

I have shared articles that detail how cell phones have become enormous distractions in daily life, and that it requires discipline to manage their use.

I've even shown them Youtube videos of Adele and Beyonce excoriating their fans for videotaping songs instead of being in the moment and enjoying the music.

With Mayer's death, I will appeal to my students' emotions. I hope they will see themselves in that teen driver. I want them to make a direct connection between what happened on that April morning and what so many of them do every day - get behind the wheel of a car. This won't be easy - after all, they are biologically programmed to believe they are invincible, that something like this couldn't happen to them.

When cell phones became a regular presence in schools, many of us were concerned with cheating - students taking a picture of a test or writing topic and then sharing it with friends. As social platforms have proliferated, however, it has become clear that there are few times in a typical day when teenagers aren't engaged with their phones. With almost half of all U.S. teenagers reporting that they are addicted to their phones, it's time to have a national conversation about their proper use.

Recently, the National Council on Highway Safety began airing public service ads that focus on the dangers of texting and driving. The tag line - stoptextsstopwrecks - should serve as a reminder to all drivers, rookie and veteran, that we have a personal responsibility to do the right thing.

One way is to use the many apps now available, such as AT&T's DriveMode and Verizon's Safely Go, which prevent phone and text messages from coming in or going out while the car is moving. Another suggestion is to place the phone out of reach, in the trunk of the car or a locked glove compartment. One of the most effective methods is parents and other adults modeling good cell phone behavior. Once it becomes a national priority, much like the campaign against drinking and driving, cell phone behaviors will improve dramatically.

When school starts in September, I'll explain my cell phone policy to a new group of seniors. I'll remind them of the school guidelines and the procedure for violations, and I'll repeat my mantra that cell phone discipline in the classroom will transfer to cell phone discipline in the car. I will also show them a picture of Steven Mayer, and share the very tragic way in which he died.

PARCC and Common Core

Now that the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests are over,  it's a good time to have a serious discussion about the usefulness of standardized testing. When the National Governors Association first began talking seriously about a national test, few could have envisioned what we have today--a very contentious environment pitting educators and parents against officials and leaders on the state and federal levels. This spring's opt-out movement, and the decision by many states to delay implementing the tests, clearly demonstrates that much work lies ahead for those who have invested a great deal of time and money in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

When many states adopted the CCSS, which is a set of skills, not a curriculum, and then the PARCC, which is the test that measures those skills, educators across the country were thrilled to see a genuine, bipartisan effort to raise the educational bar. States are free to set any curriculum they wish, using any materials at their disposal. It would allow for academic comparisons not just within states, but between states, so a parent in Nebraska who would traditionally get feedback on how her child compares to other fifth grade Nebraskans, could now compare her child's achievement with other fifth graders throughout the country.  This would solve an ongoing problem in education: states having their own tests to determine academic achievement, with wildly different results.  Florida, for example, could no longer pretend that a majority of their 5th graders were proficient in reading and math when using their own tests, but far fewer when using a national test.

Another problem that the CCSS solved was getting students college and career ready.  With almost 40% of college freshmen needing remediation in math, reading and writing, it's reasonable to ask why such a large number of students are unprepared for college level work.  The PARCC tests, especially at the high school level, could give a very clear indication of how ready a student is.  Students can then either rethink their decision to go on to higher education, or spend more time and effort in improving their skills to meet the minimum standards. For decades high SAT or ACT scores were the holy grail when it came to college readiness; for the SATs, a minimum 1550 is the college and career readiness benchmark score, according to the College Board, which administers the SAT.  Note the phrase "college and career readiness"--the College Board has been in the standards game for a very long time, and while there are numerous challenges one can make about the SAT, one thing is very clear: they are the best at developing standardized tests. In a few years, the PARCC may give college admissions committees one more standardized, national test score to evaluate students, but only after years of collecting data.

Of course, it was inevitable that the CCSS and PARCC would become a political issue.  The fear of federal overreach in education has always been a concern among states.  Governor Christie, a long-time supporter of the CCSS, just recently stated his intention to replace it with a new set of standards developed by parents and educators in New Jersey, rather than " developed by people near the Potomac." The bottom line is that the stated goals of the tests, as well as what they can measure in student learning, is very valuable, but the tests aren't ready yet for prime time.

So what should be done?

First, the tests themselves should be reevaluated and revised.  Tests must show validity and reliability, and one way to check for both is to administer the tests and examine the results over a reasonable period of time. David Coleman, the president of the College Board, was a main architect of the Common Core State Standards, so his expertise is unquestionable. The professionals who are in charge of making up the tests, which always include educators (but should not include parents or politicians), are in the best position to determine what changes need to be made.  Once proficiency scores are established, educators, students, and parents will understand the work that needs to be done.

Second, no PARCC test scores should determine whether or not a student advances to the next grade level.  There is not a single professional study that suggests there are any benefits in retaining students, so threatening students with being left back is simply a non-starter. This would also put the brakes on the opt-out movement that has gained tremendous momentum.

Third, the PARCC tests were never intended to measure teacher effectiveness. Again, as the political motivations of various elected officials became evident, the opportunity to link test results with teacher performance was too good to pass up. The CCSS and the PARCC were designed to bring rigor and uniformity to the classroom, not evaluate how well a teacher teaches. Witness the strange alliance between teachers unions and Republican governors as proof of just how contentious this point is.

Lastly, let us treat the tests for what they are: another data point for students, parents, teachers, administrators, and college officials. For years elementary school students have taken the California Achievement Test (CAT), and high school students have taken the SAT and ACT; the PARCC can simply add information to a student's academic profile. Rather than eliminating them before they have a chance to demonstrate what they can offer, let's see what the data shows this school year, and wait for the publishers of the tests to tell us what they have learned from their first year.

In 2010, 45 states adopted the Common Core, a remarkable achievement by the National Governors Association. By 2015, only 10 states have implemented either PARCC or Smarter Balanced, another test aligned with the Common Core. The bottom line? Let's keep the standards; they are rigorous and superior to most existing state standards. But let's take some time and do what's right for anyone who has a stake in student achievement, which includes every single one of us.

New Jersey's Broken System (2014)

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  A glancing look at New Jersey's budget woes, and Governor Chris Christie's solution to the problem, remind me that after all these years, the same rhetoric is used with the same, tired excuses.  Yes, there is a very serious budget problem, and yes, health and pension benefits for state employees have a lot to do with it.  But the real work is in crafting a long-term solution, and this involves not just the governor, but the two legislative bodies, the Senate and Assembly, that have been controlled by the Democrats for more than three decades. To blame the current Republican governor is to ignore the realities of the past, as well as to exonerate the elected officials in the New Jersey Legislature of their responsibilities to the citizens of New Jersey.

          When former Governor Christine Todd Whitman took pension money to balance the budget in 1995, there was an understandable outcry, but since her tenure, there have been a series of Democratic governors and legislators who did virtually nothing to ensure that the pension system remained healthy.  Even then, there were warnings; former New Jersey Treasurer Richard C. Leone said at the time, "There is no question that this is creating future debt."

          Fast forward to 2011, and Governor Christie, along with a very compliant Democratic State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, negotiates legislation that claims true reform, but in actuality it isn't.  Christie knew that the revenue estimates were too high, thereby rendering his budget projections useless.

          The cynic in me says Christie knew that he would not be making the pension payment all along.  After all, this is a person who has said things on the record, and has then gone back on his word. He also knew he could depend on the negative public sentiment regarding public workers in general, and unions in particular, a new reality that is not abating anytime soon. Christie banked on the idea that he could balance his budget by simply not making the pension payment.

          But none of this really matters, because this is an issue of values.  The Governor can claim that there are no other solutions to balancing the budget save for not making the pension payments, and asking public employees to contribute more to their benefits; the Democrats can claim that increasing the gas tax, giving corporate tax breaks and increasing taxes on the wealthiest residents are very viable solutions to the problem.

          Both political parties will take jabs at one another, but no one will do the hard work--vote on legislation that restores sanity to the budget process, and to the health benefits and pension systems.

          What must happen is voters--both state employees and New Jersey citizens--must insist that their elected representatives pass legislation that does two things: make it impossible for governors to take pension fund money and move it onto the state budget, and require that full pension payments be made yearly.

          Christie, like any good Republican, believes in corporate tax breaks as a means to grow jobs, and not raising the gas tax or imposing a millionaires' tax for fear of driving away businesses.  Proposing these solutions is absurd because they run counter to his political and economic philosophies.

          But if the Legislature does its job, then they need not visit this issue with acute regularity every spring. They must take on the responsibility of reforming the whole system, because there will be an end game, and New Jersey taxpayers will feel it.  But by then, it will be too late to do anything about it.

          It's all a matter of values, and those in power--both Democrats and Republicans--get to exercise their values. Democrats had numerous opportunities to fix the system when there was a Democrat in the Governor's office, and they chose not to. Now that there's a Republican, and for at least three more years, their work is far more complicated.  Hopefully they will find the political will to do what is right.

Superstorm Sandy (2013)

When Superstorm Sandy hit last October, I could not begin to imagine
what summer 2013 at the Jersey Shore would look like. News footage of
the flooding, wind damage, and storm surge guaranteed at least a
challenging season for some businesses and homeowners. The good news is
the cleanup has been remarkable; the not-so-good news is it will take
years before everything is back to normal.

Last November, when my husband and I were allowed back into our home in
Beach Haven West after the storm, we were met with absolute devastation.
We passed boats off their lifts, and saw random wave runners and jet
skis strewn in people's front and side yards. Dried seagrass was trapped
almost four feet high in chain link fences, and a thin layer of mud
covered rock lawns, decks, and, for those of us with homes on a cement
slab, the first floor.

But those are distant memories. Since summer unofficially began on
Memorial Day, I've been peering into empty homes, eviscerated of their
contents. Some look as though they were last entered just before the
storm, with furniture settled wherever the water level receded. Others
are stripped down to studs, standing naked clear through the windows.
"For Sale" signs are everywhere, as are demolition and house-raising
advertisements. Although there is very little debris in the streets and
driveways, some properties clearly have been abandoned, such as the one
with a boat, its windshield missing, crashing through garage doors.

However, one thing that has not changed is the incredible support and
generosity of friends and neighbors. Although some families just needed
to hose out their garages just after Sandy, others lost everything. It
has been extraordinary to see people open their homes to residents who
have suffered the most, especially those still dealing with the stress
of insurance companies and new local zoning laws.

Except for an occasional sighting of a Real Housewife of New Jersey, it
turned out to be a quiet summer. Some new construction took place, but
most homeowners were remodeling. Traffic was way down, and hard-to-get
reservations weren't so hard to get. Our little bungalow didn't have any
drywall (love that '70s-style paneling), so after tossing all the
furniture and hosing it out, everything dried. Is there mold? We don't
know, but we're staying.

Considering what things looked like 10 months ago, it was a good summer.
As for summer 2014? It can only get better.