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Star Ledger - Gov. Christie unveils bills linking tenure to teacher evaluations
The Record - Christie unveils proposed legislation for changing tenure and teacher evaluations
Star Ledger - Gov. Christie unveils bills linking tenure to teacher evaluations
Published: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 2:05 PM Updated: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 2:08 PM
By Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today unveiled a package of seven education reform bills that propose linking tenure attainment and merit pay to a statewide teacher evaluation system he hopes will be functional by the 2012-2013 school year.
Under the new system, teachers would be given one of four ratings – highly effective, effective, partially effective, or ineffective.
Teachers given the two highest ratings three years in a row would be eligible for tenure. Educators rated partially effective for two years or ineffective for one year would lose their job protections and could be fired at a principal's discretion.
“We want tenure to become something good teachers earn, that will protect good teachers from political firings or personal relationship firings,” Christie said at a press conference outside his office. “It will not protect bad teachers who stay in front of the classroom.”
The package of bills, which Christie said he hopes will move through the legislature swiftly and conjunctively, also proposes ending a practice known as “last in first out,” which requires principals to fire less experienced teachers before firing their most senior staff.
“Young teachers, new teachers, who because of the last in first out system are the ones who go based purely on seniority,” said Christie of current law. “Teachers who are effective are not worried about losing their jobs.”
Other initiatives in this package of bills include: ending a practice known as mutual consent that forces principles to employ teachers regardless of their skill level, encouraging teachers to work in high needs school districts and difficult to staff subject areas like math or science, and placing a 30 day deadline on the time administrative law judges have to decide on tenure revocation cases.
Christie said he became impatient waiting for the legislature to introduce legislation on these issues independently and that 100,000 children in the state's 200 failing districts could not wait any longer.
He also criticized the New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, for being opposed to his reforms. One bill proposes allowing school districts to opt out of the civil service system.
"We have an obligation to educate every child in the state," Christie said. "The teachers union, they're practically abandoning kids in Newark, kids in Paterson, kids in Camden, kids in Trenton because they say socioeconomic status determine' a child's ability to learn. They throw their hands up. It's outrageous."
The Record - Christie unveils proposed legislation for changing tenure and teacher evaluations
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Last updated: Wednesday April 13, 2011, 1:30 PM
BY LESLIE BRODY AND ELISE YOUNG
The Record
STAFF WRITERS
Governor Christie rolled out his proposed legislation for changing tenure and teacher evaluations Wednesday, adding details to an education agenda he has pushed since taking office.
Christie wants half of teachers' evaluations to be made of student achievement data, such as test scores and graduation rates, and half to be softer measures, such as classroom observations.
Such ratings would replace a hodgepodge of more informal methods now used by districts, which rate the vast majority of teachers as satisfactory or better.
"With some schools I think you'll see changes very quickly, within a year," Christie said at a news conference in Trenton. "In other schools it may take two or three. It depends on how bad off the school is."
Christie also wants that rating system to be the basis for a more rigorous path toward the job protection of tenure. He says an educator should demonstrate effectiveness for three years in a row to gain the substantial due process rights that come with tenure, and should lose that protection after one or two years of poor evaluations.
States and cities nationwide are experimenting with efforts to evaluate teachers more carefully and do more to recruit, retain and reward the best, while making it easier to remove those unsuited to the job.
"I'm not going to sit here and say to parents, 'I guarantee you within one year this will fix everything.' It won't," Christie said. "But what it's going to do is give them hope because hope can often spring from accountability. People who know that folks are being held accountable for their performance, are being compensated based on accountability, then they know where to go to complain."
The New Jersey Education Association has denounced relying heavily on test scores to rate teachers, and cited studies finding the data too unreliable to use for high-stakes personnel decisions. The NJEA has also proposed steps to streamline the process for revoking tenure, but has defended the system of granting tenure to teachers who have worked in a district - and been deemed satisfactory under local evaluation methods - for three years and a day. The union says that prevents nepotism, unfair dismissals and attempts to oust more expensive veterans to save money.
Christie unveiled his legislation as part of his monthlong effort to refocus attention on education, even as politicians are contentiously debating his budget proposals. Last week he gave a high-profile speech on education at the Brookings Institution in Manhattan.
E-mail: Brody@northjersey.com. Staff Writer Elise Young contributed to this report.
