The bile in "Dr." Anthony Petrosino that lay dormant for several weeks has exploded with ugliness and cruelty.
Some weeks ago, it appears HoLa's Administrators had told him to lay off the vile blog-attacks on the Hoboken District until after the Appellate hearing.
The "Dr." obeyed. His blog went quiet. For weeks he only posted braggadocio about his Academic accomplishments... enough to convince us that the "Dr." knows how to analyze data.
Which is why his latest cyber-excretion, "No Difference in Special Education Enrollment in Hoboken, NJ Among Traditional Public and Public Charter Schools" is truly disgusting.
This cyber-turd is disinformation with a capital "D.
The QUACKademic ignores that there is a whole spectrum of classifications for Special Education kids- instead he treats these very special individuals like undifferentiated "units" to embellish his crappy, homemade graph. The Hackademic's trick-graph shows the big bar that says 'District" and the big bar that says "Charter" are almost the same height! He uses visual trickery to create a false equivalency: that District and Charters have the "NO DIFFERENCE" in special education enrollment.
It is false.
It is immoral.
Special Ed children are not numbers, Petrosino.
Of course the enrollment is different. If the QUACKademic really wants to do an "apples to apples" comparison of Special Education enrollment between districts, then do it with the NJDOE classification a.k.a. diagnosis.
The 'Dr." does not want to tell you how the Hoboken District Special Education enrollment includes the full spectrum of classifications that the Charters, by law, do not have to accept. The law is written to allow for charters to serve the children who can function within their programs, if such children cannot function within those parameters, they remand them to the traditional school district.
A former Special Education teacher told GA, ""SLD" (Specific Learning Disabilities) and "SLI" (Speech Language Impairment) are the mildest handicapped population. They generally have average IQs but have a deficiency in one or more areas of either language arts or math. Recommendations for such children can be as slight as redirection from the teacher, teacher writes homework down, resource room services, to a self contained classroom."
"The other classifications are generally more intense and many if not most times, require self contained classrooms- which max out at 12:1 teaching staff and for Autism and Multiply Disabled populations. Class size recommendations can be as small as 6:1 with an aide for each student. Some require outside placement which generally costs from $60k- $125k per student depending on IEP, etc."
In contrast to the QUACKademic's homemade joke-bar graph lumping special ed kids like baskets of fruit, GA has the NJDOE data. That tells the story.
This is the most current NJDOE data (2014-2015) showing disability and placement for the Hoboken District school and all 3 charters.
Clearly, the respective district populations are not "apples to apples".
In 2014-2015, the Hoboken district enrolled Special Education students in the following Groups: Autism (AUT), Emotional disturbance (EMN), Mental retardation (MR), Other health impairments or "chronically ill" (OHI), Specific learning disabilities (SLD) Speech language impairments (SLI).
- 11 students spent 40%-70% of the day in class,
- 27 students spent less than 40% of the day in class,
- 13 went to separate schools.
That same year, the Charter Special Education enrollments were as follows:
Hoboken Charter: OHI, SLI and SLD groups for a total of 36
Elysian: SLD Group for a total of 23
HoLa: SLD Group for a total of 11
- All students spent 80-100% of the day in class
We learned what many of us already knew: the Hoboken District educates the full spectrum of Special Education kids. From the mildest to the most intensive to educate.
The Charters do not; they educate a portion of the spectrum. The least intensive, least expensive to educate.
So why is an alleged Academic, "Dr." Petrosino fudging data to create a false narrative that traditional district and the Charters have "no difference" in the Special Education enrollment they educate?
Because he's a mean-spirited, dishonest CREEP.
Not one child who needs services more than 20% of the day?
ReplyDeleteNot One?
Not one autistic or multiply handicapped child?
The Hola Ahole strikes again. What a vindictive little man. His job was eliminated and now 1000s of children will have to suffer til the end of time. No shame, no honor, no integrity, no class. When will the Hola parents wake up and get rid of this bastard.
ReplyDeleteApparently Jen Sargent likes her HoLa bastard.
DeleteCould HoLa families get rid of this douche and his patron Pupie if they wanted to? Could they vote them out somehow or do parents not even get to vote for their own school's board?
ReplyDeleteThey've seen the vendetta he carries out when he feels jilted.
DeleteHoLa renewed his Board Seat in March. That's an endorsement of his misconduct.
DeleteWho renewed it? How is the HoLa Board chosen - who votes? Was it contested?
DeleteJen Sargent calls the shots, it's her board.
Deleteanyone who thought this scumbag would draw the line at special needs children was mistaken.
ReplyDeleteThey've been doing this in Hoboken Public Schools pre- Kid First, so it's no wonder Petro is okay with doing it at Hola!... They take the per student funding but not the disabled child. All in a building that was allowed to expand with ADA compliance.
ReplyDeleteIf you're in a wheelchair, you can't have equal access ... Brown vs Board of Education rings a bell
^^ without ADA access to upper floors
DeleteDoes HoLa have an elevator? How do kids in wheelchairs get to classes on upper floors? The traditional public schools all have elevators.
ReplyDeleteCharter schools are exempt from school facility requirements.
Delete"The facility shall be exempt from public school facility regulations except those pertaining to the health or safety of the pupils.
A charter school shall not construct a facility with public funds other than federal funds."
You mean Pupie Raia couldn't give them an elevator?
DeleteExempt or not, I wouldn't support a school that would exclude a child with a disability even if my kid wasn't.
DeleteBrown VS Board of Education and the ADA probably over rules the above comment, plus an elevator for a disabled person is a health and safety issue too. It's a shame certain kids ( and staff ) are excluded.
Anyone know when their leas is up so we can get the Boys and Girls Club back?
ReplyDeleteThose days are long gone.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteMasterful work!
DeleteYour commenting privileges were revoked.
DeleteI believe your analysis only works in the bubble of people who are already opposed to charter schools. Why? Because to the so-called "undecided voter" on this issue, it undermines the previous narratives about that charters "never admit children with special needs." Suddenly now, that claim is proven false.
ReplyDeleteFurther, this idea, that "sure, charters may admit about the same percentage of special needs kids, but hey -- their special needs kids on average have lesser disabilities" doesn't make a single person conclude charters are evil, hateful or should be shut down. It simply makes them reflect on the value of specialization -- in the sense that specialization is a good thing, not a bad thing. Especially when there are some children that even *the district schools* pay to send to private schools because their disabilities can't be handled in the public school setting.
The argument gets reduced to, "Sure you have about the same percentage of special needs kids as the district, and sure all schools, including the district will send *some* special needs kids to private school settings because of the nature of their disabilities -- but wait -- there's some percentage in-between those two levels of disability that we have in our schools that they don't have in theirs! A ha!"
Again, I'm not saying no one finds this persuasive. I'm saying anyone who does is already in the hate-charters bubble.
Bullshit. There is no "analysis", just the facts.
DeleteThe facts bring with them costs, personnel, and facilities issues. There is no "hate-charters" in the facts that traditional schools in Hoboken enroll the most costly-to-educate of the special education spectrum. And yes, even the most severely impacted children's test scores are included with the general population. Conversely, it is HoLa Trustee's like Petrosino who continue to slam traditional schools on per-pupil costs, and test scores while dismissing the spectrum of special ed students they educate. Petrosino doesn't want the facts to get out about the severely disabled special ed populations the Hoboken district serves vs his own district.
So he's created this straw man "hate charters bubble" nonsense. The facts are persuasive. And they should be understood, as they impact costs and other areas like testing. Those are the facts.