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GSCS Take: GSCS invitees (8 attending) welcomed the Commissioner's positive tone and listened interactively to his presentation. Several GSCS members questioned the Commissioner and the panel, expressing concern on the how-to's and availability for well-trained staffing to conduct in-depth evaluations, as well as NJ's readiness to tackle setting up the proposed system where data linked to student and teachers must be vetted in depth; a system that must have solid and accurate information, appropriate to the task ; the role of local decision-making and accountability were also among GSCS questions. Stay tuned...
"Marlboro Township schools Superintendent David C. Abbott, president of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which represents [100] suburban districts, said he liked the concept behind Cerf's proposal. But, he said, the latest research shows data cannot measure teachers that accurately.
"The data is definitely better, but we're not there yet," Abbott said. "I'm willing to listen."
New York Times ‘Christie Proposes Ending Tenure for Poor Teachers’
Njspotlight.com ‘Reinventing Tenure’ Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Tougher teacher tenure pushed by N.J. education chief’
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Tougher teacher tenure pushed by N.J. education chief’
The Record ‘N.J. public schools can weather state spending cuts, school finance expert testifies’
Asbury Park Press ‘Education chief: Base tenure on annual reviews’
New York Times ‘Christie Proposes Ending Tenure for Poor Teachers’
Njspotlight.com ‘Reinventing Tenure’
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Tougher teacher tenure pushed by N.J. education chief’
The Record ‘N.J. public schools can weather state spending cuts, school finance expert testifies’
Asbury Park Press ‘Education chief: Base tenure on annual reviews’
New York Times ‘Christie Proposes Ending Tenure for Poor Teachers’
By WINNIE HU
PRINCETON, N.J. — One month after Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey used his annual state address to call for an end to tenure for teachers, his administration unveiled a plan on Wednesday that would take away tenure from ineffective teachers but stopped short of eliminating it.
The acting state education commissioner, Christopher D. Cerf, in an address at Princeton University, said Mr. Christie would propose that tenure continue to be awarded to teachers who are rated highly effective or effective for three consecutive years. Those who are rated ineffective for one year, or partially effective for two consecutive years, would lose their tenure protections, though not necessarily their jobs, he said.
Mr. Cerf said these ratings of teachers would be based on a new evaluation system that would assess the performance of teachers based at least partly on their students’ test scores but also on other measures, like classroom observations and teacher practices. He said Mr. Christie wanted to make the evaluation system mandatory in all districts, and to prohibit it from being altered in union negotiations.
The proposal would need the approval of the State Legislature.
Mr. Cerf said Mr. Christie, a Republican, had not changed his position that the tenure system needed to be radically reconsidered. In the past decade, Mr. Cerf said, 17 teachers, out of about 100,000 tenured teachers statewide, have lost their jobs because of charges of incompetence.
“The governor’s plan is consistent with his longstanding position that the tenure system is broken,” he said.
Mr. Cerf said the governor would also propose that decisions about layoffs be based primarily on teacher evaluations, though seniority could be a lesser factor.
Joseph Ricca, superintendent of the East Hanover Township district, said he supported the governor’s ideas for tenure changes. “It will certainly allow administrators to make decisions based on student achievement, and that — really, ultimately — has to be the driving force,” he said.
But the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, continued to oppose Mr. Christie’s plan. “In fact, if the governor’s goal is to cultivate anxiety in the heart of every parent and every teacher in New Jersey, he has done that today,” Barbara Keshishian, the union’s president, said in a statement. “He just doesn’t understand teaching, the tenure process or what constitutes a sound evaluation process.”
Mr. Christie, who was scheduled to speak in Washington on Wednesday, has attracted national attention with his tough approach to schools. During his State of the State address in January, he said “the time to eliminate teacher tenure is now.”
Njspotlight.com ‘Reinventing Tenure’
Acting Education Commissioner Cerf tells educators, "We have done a spectacularly lousy job when it comes to teacher evaluation."
By John Mooney, February 17 in Education |Post a Comment
In a presentation befitting an academic symposium, acting state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf yesterday rolled out the first details in Gov. Chris Christie’s plans for overhauling teacher tenure.
Borrowing heavily from a system being launched in Colorado, Cerf described a proposal in which teachers would only receive tenure protection when they have demonstrated effective teaching for consecutive years and lose it when they don’t.
He laid out a teacher evaluation system that would use student test scores as one determinate, and said such data would ultimately be used in helping establish pay and placement, too.
His message was as much to school leaders as to teachers. "We have done a spectacularly lousy job when it comes to teacher evaluation," he said.
By Invitation Only
Over two hours, it was an impressively choreographed show at a Princeton University lecture hall, with an accompanying panel discussion. His audience was by invitation from the across the education community, including a couple tickets for the teachers union.
But while the presentation was seamless, the challenges to Cerf’s plan came out immediately.
On the panel was the prime sponsor of the legislation that would carry forward the proposal, state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex). But afterward, Ruiz she said her bill may not go quite as far as Cerf had proposed.
Cerf said that he wanted the plan to be enacted in 2011 and put in place in the 2011-2012 school year. He also acknowledged there were "very serious mountains to climb" on the data system that would make it possible to link individual teachers with student performance.
On the same day, a national group released a report on the education data systems in all 50 states. It showed New Jersey is still lagging well behind in some key pieces that will make it possible to establish that linkage. Even the state Department of Education’s own timeline indicates that this capability is at least 16 months away.
Still, one of the authors of the national report said other states have made great strides in a single year and New Jersey is among those poised to do the same.
"It’s not so much the technical but the political will over how that data is to be used," said Elizabeth Laird of the Data Quality Campaign, a Washington, D.C., group advocating greater and better use of education data. "But once a state decides it wants to do this, it can do it."
Cerf’s presentation was indeed as much about the politics of the moment as the details of the plan. He seized on Christie’s recession-era message that for all the money spent on public schools, there needs to be accountability for the results.
A Balanced Approach
Countering his boss's frequent criticism of the state’s leading teachers union, Cerf said early in his presentation that his message was neither anti-union nor anti-teacher.
"Most of them in New Jersey are very, very good. They are saints," Cerf said. "Let’s be very clear. I am not engaged in this to bash teachers or to blame teachers."
He laid out the plan in four broad areas: tenure, evaluation, seniority and pay. And he said in each would be a system of annual evaluations in which teachers would be judged on their students’ progress, half of it on state tests and the remaining half through observations and other measures.
From there, teachers would fall into one of four categories: highly effective, effective, partially effective and ineffective.
Instead of receiving lifetime tenure after their first three years, as they do now, teachers would only be awarded tenure after demonstrating three straight years of at effective ratings. They would lose it after on year of ineffective or two of partially effective.
The teachers with the lower ratings would still have their jobs, Cerf said, but without the same protections from possible layoffs. There would be an appeals process available to teachers, but only of the process used, not the ultimate rating. It would not be subject to collective bargaining, Cerf said.
The system is very similar to one that was enacted earlier this year in Colorado, although the debate continues to exactly what measures and criteria will be used in that state.
Cerf acknowledged the same debate is likely ahead in New Jersey, where a task force appointed by the governor continues to devise the specific criteria to be used in evaluations. Its report is due March 1, and several of its members were in attendance yesterday.
"Some will say it is not a perfect system -- and guilty as charged," said Cerf, known for his casual and humble speaking style. "But we have also done a lot to make this a more balanced system."
Political Battles
Still, now comes the hard part, and he and others acknowledged the political battles ahead could be epic. Ginger Gold Schnitzer, the chief lobbyist of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), sat in the center of the audience and said afterward that she was open to meeting with Cerf to further discuss the proposal. Schnitzer said she met him for only the first time yesterday. But her leadership was quick to criticize.
"NJEA shares Governor Christie's goal to improve student achievement, and we want to work with policymakers to ensure that every child has the best teachers," said a statement from Barbara Keshishian, president of the NJEA.
"But these proposals on tenure, merit pay, and tying teacher evaluations to student test scores are problematic," she said. “In fact, if the governor's goal is to cultivate anxiety in the heart of every parent and every teacher in New Jersey, he has done that today. He just doesn't understand teaching, the tenure process, or what constitutes a sound evaluation process."
While altering the tenure system will require legislative approval, there were few legislators in the audience, with mostly their staff taking their place. Ruiz, the Essex County Democrat who chairs the Senate education committee, sat on the panel discussion and will be the central player in filing the legislation. She said it should come within two weeks.
But she kept away from committing to specific details and said there is also much to do around teacher preparation, professional development and even the length of the school day. She said not everything Cerf proposed would be in her plan.
"There could be different components," she said. "But we can all agree on the focus on one thing, the children at the desk."
And during another tight budget year where the administration has warned school districts of possible cuts in state aid again, several school leaders -- including one on the panel -- said it’s difficult to have it both ways.
"You know that cutting administrators plays well with the public," said Brian Osborne, superintendent of South Orange-Maplewood schools. "But the ratio of administrators to teachers is going to be important to the quality of this work."
In one of the lighter moments of the day, Cerf answered another question about cost that time was up and the session would have to end.
"Fair enough," he resumed. "It’s the story of your life. Someone gives you a great idea from Trenton or Washington, but doesn’t give you the funds. I don’t have the answer. I hear you loud and clear."
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Tougher teacher tenure pushed by N.J. education chief’
By Rita Giordano and Maya Rao
Inquirer Staff Writers
PRINCETON - In a speech that endorsed many aspects of Gov. Christie's education agenda, New Jersey's top education official called Wednesday for making tenure harder to get and keep, holding teachers accountable for student performance, and creating financial incentives for educators.
Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf also said he wanted teacher effectiveness to replace seniority as the main factor in determining which teachers keep their jobs in layoffs.
"If we are serious [about education], wouldn't we do everything in our power to make sure that only strong teachers were in our classrooms?" Cerf said to a gathering of 140 school advocates, state officials, and reporters at Princeton University.
While almost all of the goals have been aired before by the administration at different times since Christie took office, Wednesday's event signaled the intent to move the agenda forward.
While New Jersey's schools overall compare favorably with those of many other states, Cerf, pointing to a continuing achievement gap among income groups and races, pointed to poor state test performance by African American and Hispanic students in Newark and Camden.
Under the proposals outlined Wednesday, teacher evaluations would be based on student learning and would grade instructors by four categories, from highly effective to ineffective. A governor-appointed Teacher Effectiveness Task Force is expected to hand down its recommendations soon.
Cerf also advocated giving raises to teachers based on effectiveness in advancing learning or teaching in a high-need school, or in a recognized shortage area such as bilingual education.
The tenure system would be dramatically altered, although it would not abolished in favor of five-year contracts - something Christie has suggested.
Under Cerf's proposal, teachers would no longer necessarily earn tenure after three years on the job. Instead, a teacher would have to be rated effective or highly effective under the new evaluation system for three consecutive years. But if a teacher with tenure was rated ineffective or partially effective for two consecutive years, that educator would be stripped of tenure.
Michael Mann, a business lawyer and managing partner of the firm Pepper Hamilton, who supports tenure reform and was not at Wednesday's event, said changing the current tenure system would require only passing legislation. The harder part, he said, is "to find the political will to make that decision."
Indeed, Cerf's message got a mixed reaction.
Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D., Essex), who was part of a panel discussion after Cerf's remarks, plans to unveil her own proposals to revise tenure. She acknowledged the potential for pushback.
"I will tell you this is going to get heated, but I'm ready for a fight," said Ruiz, who chairs the Senate's Education Committee.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D., Essex), however, was quick to criticize the administration's proposals.
"We will review this plan but will do so knowing that solving the problems facing our poorest children in failing urban schools are more complicated than throwing around slogans and blaming teacher job protections," she said.
Addressing the problems of the schools of the poor requires confronting poverty, Oliver said.
"One cannot claim to be helping poor children when they're also cutting the school breakfast program, raising income taxes on working poor parents, and reducing access to health care for low-income mothers and their newborn babies," she said.
The New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, has been at war with Christie and is the frequent target of some of his most stinging attacks. After Wednesday's event, NJEA president Barbara Keshishian said the proposals would hurt education by making teachers redouble their test-preparation efforts, while merit pay would hurt morale, not reward the best teachers, and would thwart collaboration.
She faulted the administration for rejecting the union's tenure-reform proposal to speed up dismissal proceedings by assigning them to arbitrators rather than going through the courts.
"No one wants to create 125,000 new patronage jobs in New Jersey, but that's the risk we run under the governor's proposal," she said.
The New Jersey School Boards Association, however, welcomed many of the proposals, including tenure change and removing seniority as the main determinant in workforce reductions.
"We're going into a period of change, and it is change that is long overdue," said association spokesman Frank Belluscio.
Of the proposed more rigorous review process, he said most of the state's educators are capable.
"I don't think the teachers should be afraid of it," he said.
State education spokesman Alan Guenther said the legislation for the proposals has not yet been written.
The Record ‘Acting N.J. education chief outlines new teacher tenure proposal’
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Last updated: Wednesday February 16, 2011, 8:22 PM
BY LESLIE BRODY
A teacher would earn tenure only after being judged effective for three years in a row — and would lose it after two consecutive years of poor ratings — under a new proposal announced Wednesday by New Jersey’s acting education commissioner, Christopher Cerf.
In a highly anticipated speech at Princeton University, Cerf spelled out details of Governor Christie’s plan to dramatically change tenure and seniority privileges for the state’s public school teachers. Cerf said the current system allows too many incompetent teachers to keep their jobs and fails to reward merit.
Among variables that schools can control, the quality of the teacher in the classroom is by far the most important factor in determining how well children learn, Cerf said. So it is critical, he said, to reward the best teachers and make it easier for districts to remove those who don’t help students learn.
“Are we serious about doing everything in our power to maximize the probability that we will have an effective teacher in every classroom?” he asked. “Or are we too politically timid to take the steps necessary to give our children the best chance in life?”
He proposed an annual evaluation system that rates teachers in four categories, from highly effective to ineffective. At least half of a teacher’s evaluation would be based on measures of student learning, such as improvement on state tests. The rest would be based on classroom observations, student work and other practices linked to achievement.
Christie’s tenure plan
New Jersey’s acting education commissioner, Christopher Cerf, on Wednesday outlined Governor Christie’s plan to dramatically change tenure and seniority privileges for the state’s public school teachers. Here are some highlights:
· A teacher would earn tenure only after being judged effective three years in a row — and would lose it after two consecutive years of poor ratings.
· Annual evaluations would rate teachers in four categories, from highly effective to ineffective.
· At least half of a teacher's evaluation would be based on measures of student learning, such as improvement on state tests. The rest would be based on classroom observations, student work and other practices linked to achievement.
· Struggling teachers would be given an opportunity to improve before getting an ineffective rating.
· The evaluation system would not be subject to collective bargaining.
· Tenure cases would need to be resolved within 30 days of being filed.
· Layoffs due to budget cuts would be made primarily on the basis of demonstrated effectiveness rather than last-in, first-out policies.
The New Jersey Education Association has proposed streamlining the legal process for removing teachers, but has adamantly defended the basic job protection of tenure, saying it prevents unfair dismissal, favoritism and attempts to save money by firing expensive veterans. The state’s largest teachers union also vehemently opposes judging teachers largely on test scores, saying that doing so penalizes teachers with the most difficult students, and that the data is unreliable.
“Now, fearful of losing their jobs if they don’t raise test scores, teachers will redouble their test-preparation efforts, and quality instruction will be sacrificed,” NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said in a statement. “Parents should be alarmed and dismayed at this proposal.”
Keshishian said the nine-member task force that Christie appointed to devise better evaluations was a “sham,” noting that Cerf’s announcement came before the task force is due to report to the governor on March 1.
Cerf said the task force report would carry weight and that his proposals related to how schools would use the new tools.
Under the plan, a teacher who gets poor ratings for two consecutive years would lose tenure and the substantial due-process rights that come with it. That doesn’t mean she would lose her job, Cerf said, but she would be on probation. The plan resembles one recently adopted in Colorado.
Several superintendents who listened to the speech expressed support for the proposals, but noted that principals would need training and more time to conduct thorough evaluations — at a moment when many cash-strapped districts are cutting administrators. Some superintendents said they needed better student tests to effectively implement the plan, and voiced concern that a new evaluation tool imposed by the state would be rejected by local leaders devoted to home rule.
Jan Furman, superintendent of the Northern Valley Regional High School District, said meaningful evaluations, with consequences, would help motivate teachers to keep up to date.
“Most of us would not go to a doctor who hasn’t changed his practice in 10 years,” she said. “Some teachers are teaching the same ways they were taught, but the science of teaching and learning has advanced tremendously.”
Daniel Fishbein, the Ridgewood schools superintendent, agreed, but predicted that “this is going to be a big battle” against some teachers and others resistant to major change.
Overhauling New Jersey’s 102-year-old tenure law — the first in the country — requires new legislation, but Cerf said he thinks he can impose a statewide teacher evaluation tool without a new law. He said he hoped a new tenure law would be adopted this year and an early version of the new teacher evaluation tool would be in place by the start of the next school year.
Tenure cases often drag on for more than a year and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, giving districts little incentive to attempt to remove bad teachers unless there’s egregious abuse. The state education department says over the last 10 years, only 17 tenured New Jersey teachers have lost their positions due to incompetence. The union has said those statistics are misleading because many teachers who aren’t suited to the job are quietly counseled out of the profession.
Cerf said the governor also wanted to fix the last-in-first-out rule that protects teachers with seniority during layoffs due to budget cuts. Layoff decisions should be made primarily on the basis of demonstrated effectiveness, he said.
It was unclear how much support the proposal would draw in the Legislature. State Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, said Wednesday that a tenure bill she is drafting has many similarities to Cerf’s proposal, such as making annual evaluations meaningful for job retention. She said she aims to introduce it in several weeks, adding that she is “ready to fight.” Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, D-Essex, said in a statement that she would review the administration’s plan, but “slogans” and “blaming teacher job protections” would not fix the deeper issues of students in poverty.
Asbury Park Press ‘Education chief: Base tenure on annual reviews’
17 teachers fired in 10 years; NJEA slams reform proposal
PRINCETON— Gov. Chris Christie's incoming education chief said Wednesday teacher tenure should be changed so that the job protection is awarded and kept based on rigorous reviews, but he stopped short of asking that tenure be ended, as the governor had indicated earlier.
Acting Commissioner Christopher Cerf called for a new system to grant tenure in as little as three years, as is currently, but only if teachers have been judged proficient for each year.
Teachers would continue to be reviewed annually after gaining tenure, and those graded only partially effective in two consecutive years would lose it, Cerf said. That would not result in automatic dismissal, but the careerlong safeguards teachers have enjoyed for a century would be removed.
"We need to guarantee teachers reasonable protection from wrongful discharge," Cerf told about 150 education officials from across the state. "We cannot guarantee them lifetime job security, even if they can't teach kids to learn."
Cerf's speech, delivered at Princeton University, signaled that Christie's administration was ready to advance his education reform agenda, discussed publicly for over a year and opposed by the state's largest teachers union.
Cerf appeared to back away from a statement made by Christie at the State of the State speech in January when he said, "The time to eliminate teacher tenure is now."
But Cerf said his statements were not inconsistent with Christie's speech or other statements, such as a call for five-year contracts. The system, as it currently exists, would end, he said.
Christie has been critical of the teachers union and those he calls ineffective teachers. He has often decried low test scores in urban or low-income districts. Christie's administration has expanded the number of charter schools, and he is advocating a school voucher program.
Cerf, in his comments, rattled off a series of dismal educational statistics. He said
that only 22 percent of students who begin 9th grade in Newark graduate four years
later after passing the state's high school proficiency test.
Therefore, the state and Newark school district spent $750,000 for every city
graduate able to pass the state's test, Cerf said.
He noted that only 17 teachers in New Jersey have been fired for incompetence in
the last decade, which shows the need for a new system.
The New Jersey Education Association, which represents the vast majority of the
state's teachers, issued a statement denouncing Cerf's initiative.
"This proposal is an unproven step in the wrong direction," NJEA President Barbara
Keshishian said. "All reliable research suggests that evaluating teachers primarily
on their ability to raise student test scores is bad policy, but that doesn't deter Gov.
Christie."
Tenure reform has some support in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature.
State Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, attended the speech and participated as a panel speaker afterward. She said she plans to
introduce tenure reform legislation within two weeks. Ruiz said she has taken an
interest in a new system in Colorado, which also requires teachers to maintain tenure
through job reviews.
"It's going to get heated, but I'm ready for the fight," Ruiz said.
In his speech, Cerf said teachers should be measured based on whether their students
show growth on tests, not whether the students score high. That would prevent
teachers from being penalized for having low-performing students, he said.
A committee, appointed by Christie, is expected to report on how to accurately
measure student progress within two weeks.
That data-based measurement would account for half of teachers' evaluations.
The other half would come from in-classroom observation and "other measures," Cerf said. Teachers would then be put in four categories, ranging from
highly effective to ineffective.
Those evaluations would then serve not only as the basis of tenure, but to help
determine salary increases and whether teachers keep their jobs if the districts
must impose layoffs, Cerf said.
"It is impossible to defend the system of lockstep pay that we have, based on only
two (factors) a degree, and another year of seniority," Cerf said.
Teachers and principals should have a say in where they teach within their district,
Cerf said. That would prevent forced placements and give principals the power
to shape their team in the schools.
Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said the
association has been advocating tenure reform since Gerald Ford was president in
the 1970s. He said since tenure was adopted in New Jersey in 1909, additional
laws and regulations have strengthened protections to the point where tenure is no
longer necessary.
Marlboro Township schools Superintendent David C. Abbott, president of the Garden
State Coalition of Schools, which represents [100] suburban districts, said he liked the
concept behind Cerf's proposal. But, he said, the latest research shows data cannot
measure teachers that accurately.
"The data is definitely better, but we're not there yet," Abbott said. "I'm willing to
listen."
