School board across the country are atwitter with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office on Civil Rights’ announcement that kids with disabilities have the same rights to participate in athletic teams and after school activities as kids without disabilities. (Earlier coverage here. Also see Mike Petrelli’s analysis/rant.) Everyone take a deep breath, please: no one knows exactly how this will work, and NJ exhibits special challenges, what with our plethora of tiny schools that would have trouble fielding a basketball team under any circumstances.

At the very least, the fed’s ruling will prompt useful conversations: what’s the purpose of a high school football team? Does it exist to win games or to encourage leadership and collaboration? Are those two goals mutually exclusive? What does it look like to incorporate fiercely interested but cognitively/physically/emotionally disabled school mates to have some sort of a role? What’s the liability if a school prefers to ignore the fed ruling? Who funds the extra equipment and aides (duh)?

The Star-Ledger reports that, according to the US Department of Education, almost nine out of 10 New Jersey students get their high school diplomas on time and that we have one the nation’s lowest drop-out rates. 

Fort Lee School District, dismayed by its plunge from 72nd to 97th in New Jersey Monthly’s high school ratings, is reversing a policy that encouraged all children to participate in A.P. courses and returning to a selective enrollment policy.  (The Record)  

Here’s an excellent (both heartening and heart-breaking)  Star-Ledger piece that examines performance at Newark’s elementary and middle schools, particularly those that serve the neediest kids. Miller Street Elementary and Fourteenth St. School serve kids from the toughest neighborhoods yet “earned higher math and language arts test scores and increased those scores during the 2010-11 academic year at a higher rate than any other district school in the city serving students with similar needs.” Other standouts include “Lady Liberty Academy and New Horizons Community charter schools are also helping the most challenged students improve their scores on state exams, while TEAM Academy and Gray charter schools are succeeding with slightly less needier students. “

Regarding TEAM, also a charter schools, there’s this item:

High expectations also contribute to the success at TEAM Academy’s five school campuses, said Ryan Hill, the academy’s executive director. In many district and charter schools that fail with the most needy students, that spirit is absent, he said.
TEAM also targets its special education students, whom the charter school has developed a reputation for serving well. About 12 percent of TEAM’s students receive special education services.
Nearly every class has two teachers — one general education instructor and one special education instructor who can work with students one-on-one, mid-lesson, Hill said. The school also has a full fleet of social workers, psychologists and counselors to help students work through behavioral and emotional problems.

NJBIZ reports, “The tax-exempt status of a Camden charter school was revoked by the Internal Revenue Service following the school’s failure to file proper nonprofit financial statements for three years, putting $8.5 million of bonds at risk of losing their tax exemption.”

NJ Spotlight reports that the Christie Administration is proposing tougher tenure laws for charter school teachers than for their counterparts in non-charter schools in order to retain a charter’s flexibility. The NJEA says this would make charter teachers “second class citizens.” 

The University of Pennsylvania Law School is hosting a conference called “The Debate for America’s Future: Assessing the Viability of Public Education Solutions. Keynoters include Kahlil Byrd, President of Students First and William Hite, Philadelphia School Superintendent. The date is Feb. 23d. Here’s the link.

Gina Genovese, Executive Director of Courage to Connect New Jersey, urges municipalities to resist the siren call of home rule and “get serious about addressing high property taxes” by consolidating towns.