Newark: Cami Anderson Uses Network Model to Kill Neighborhood Schools

UPDATED: If Carmen Farina wants to make a quick mark she should begin dismantling the Networks - ASAP. They are a mechanism purposely designed to destabilize the links between a school and the neighborhood. As our pal from Newark points out here, they are a national tool of ed deform to make it easier to soften up neighborhoods for charter school invasions.

Reports from a Newark teacher:

Cami Anderson has implemented a One Newark policy whereby students will be able to register across the district regardless of where in Newark they live. 
 http://onewark.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/One-Newark-Long-Term-Ward-Plan-FAQ.pdf
Teachers and parents in the Ironbound are particularly concerned because their schools are "overcapacity.
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Social interaction nowadays is relegated to Responsive Classroom and Turn and Talk. All contacts are highly structured.
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While Cami Anderson ostensibly uses Responsive Classroom to build school communities, she has implemented a system of networks to replace the former regional subdivisions of the school system that largely conformed to the political wards of the city. The network system, however, separates schools according to proficiency levels on standardized tests. For example, low performing "renew" schools are currently grouped together in one network. Since Newark is a city of neighborhoods divided by race, class and ethnicity, parents are more likely to organize along those lines rather than the academic levels of their children.

For the 2014-2015 school year, Anderson has proposed a plan entitled One Newark to further erode Newark communities by increasing the number of charter schools and transporting children around the city to attend various schools. City Councilman Ras Baraka, on leave from his position as principal of Central High School to run for mayor, is the lone strong voice in Newark seeking to halt the expansion of charter schools. 

To date, the Newark Teachers Union has mounted a weak response to Anderson's attempt to destroy the Newark Public Schools. Should Anderson succeed, the few remaining Newark Public Schools will serve children requiring Special Education services, English as a Second Language instruction and those who have been "counseled out" of charters.

 http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2013/12/reforming_newarks_schools_edit.html

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This is so much shit it is not funny. They make veteran teachers' lives a living hell. They transfer us, give us lousy evaluations and refuse to listen to a word we say. The administrators in my two most recent schools all parrot the same crap about Common Core. It is like talking to the wall. The newbies live in fear.