Newark debuts a new all-boys school public school; questions are raised about discrimination against girls and the principal’s reputation. (Star-Ledger)

Does the implementation of the national common core standards make full-day kindergarten a necessity, wonders the Independent Press? Currently, full-day kindergarten in NJ is only required in low-income districts, although 76% districts have it anyway.

NJ Spotlight observes school district shopping trips for teacher and principal evaluation models.

New Jersey School Boards Association reports on new legislation:

A Senate panel on Monday advanced a union-backed bill that would undermine a school board’s ability to subcontract services, even though NJSBA research has found subcontracting services has saved taxpayers millions of dollars every year.
S-968, which was released Monday by the Senate Labor Committee, would undermine the ability of a local board to subcontract services by imposing numerous restrictions and requirements on the process.

And The Record reports on a new bill proposed by Senators Ronald Rice and Nellie Pou that would limit state takeovers of school districts to five years. The bill is prompted by Paterson School District’s desire to escape state control. The President of the Paterson Board, Christopher Irving, says that “for the bill to pass, supporters need to persuade their colleagues in the suburbs that any district is at risk of being targeted for a state takeover An appeal also should be made to conservatives who want to limit the role of government, he said.”

Lakewood Public Schools has appointed its interim superintendent, Laura Winters, as permanent, or as permanent as it is in Lakewood; she will be the fourth superintendent since the school year 2007-2008. The Asbury Park Press says,

Winters, 47, of Brick inherits one of the more challenging educational jobs in New Jersey. She’s tasked with turning around a low-performing school district long beset with administrative turmoil, political rancor and a wide cultural divide between the predominantly Hispanic and African-American families served by Lakewood’s six public schools and the fast-growing Orthodox Jewish community, whose children attend a mushrooming network of more than 100 religious schools located within the township’s borders.

Thomas Friedman in today’s New York Times says that the Obama Administration’s education competition called Race to the Top is one of his two favorite initiatives and the President’s “best kept secret.”

Also in the NY Times, a report on NYC’s elite private schools and their efforts to diversify theirs student bodies. “But schools’ efforts to attract minority students haven’t always been matched by efforts to truly make their experience one of inclusion, students and school administrators say. Pervading their experience, the students say, is the gulf between those with seemingly endless wealth and resources and those whose families are struggling, a divide often reflected by race.”