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Njspotlight.com ‘Gov. Christie Addresses the Details of His Educational Reforms’
The Record ‘Update: N.J. Gov. Christie calls for new methods to evaluate teachers, merit raises’
Star ledger ‘Gov. Christie pushes for teacher merit pay based on students' performance’
Politickernj.com ‘Christie: Six ways to fix schools’
Njspotlight.com ‘Gov. Christie Addresses the Details of His Educational Reforms’
The Record ‘Update: N.J. Gov. Christie calls for new methods to evaluate teachers, merit raises’
Star ledger ‘Gov. Christie pushes for teacher merit pay based on students' performance’
Politickernj.com ‘Christie: Six ways to fix schools’
Njspotlight.com ‘Gov. Christie Addresses the Details of His Educational Reforms’
Suddenly the governor’s ideas are starting to sound almost mainstream, but implementation challenges remain By John Mooney, September 29 in Education |5 Comments
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And as anyone knows who’s caught one of the governor’s press conferences (or YouTube videos), he can be equally combative about those same ideas.
But what seemed challenging not that long ago “...is actually the new normal inside states these days,” said Patrick
Gov. Chris Christie is nothing if not consistent -- at least when it comes to his ideas about education.
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And as anyone knows who’s caught one of the governor’s press conferences (or YouTube videos), he can be equally combative about those same ideas.
But what seemed challenging not that long ago “...is actually the new normal inside states these days,” said Patrick McGuinn, an associate professor of political science at Drew University.
Accountability for teachers and principals, ways to reward those who excel and to fire those who fail, a whole new way of thinking about how we evaluate and retain our educators.
Actually, none of these ideas are necessarily unique to New Jersey anymore.
McGuinn added that President Obama’s support for many of these concepts in his Race to the Top competition, has “changed the politics and dynamics around these issues dramatically.”
But the challenge comes in turning these ideas into action, and that means detailing how each will be implemented.
Christie delivered some of those details yesterday:
Data Collection
New Jersey has long been saddled with a slow-moving system that did not allow the state to link individual teachers with the performance and achievement of their students.
Years and tens of millions in the making, NJ SMART now has in place a full tracking system for every student and teacher, but not the mechanism to bring their performance together -- at least not yet.
It was one of the key weaknesses cited in the state’s unsuccessful Race to the Top application, and Christie yesterday conceded it remains a gaping need. He promised to appropriate $10 million in the next two years to bring the system up to speed.
“The current system is just not capable of linking principals and teachers with student performance, and that is the linchpin of what we want to do,” he said.
The money will help dramatically, although the $10 million is a fraction of what the state asked for in its Race to the Top bid. And few argue with the need, no matter the political party or the organization. Officials have said with the right resources and commitment, the system could be ready within two years.
Teacher Evaluation and a New Task Force
In previous proposals, the governor and his staff had suggested a large -- perhaps cumbersome is the better word -- committee of experts and educators to devise guidelines for how teacher evaluation should be conducted across the state, with a heavy emphasis on student performance. The committee was to be 37 members strong, with names already submitted from key stakeholders promised a place at the table.
Yesterday, Christie scaled his original proposal way back. Before the presentation began, he signed an executive order to create the nine-member Task Force on Teacher Effectiveness. The order did not define who would serve on the panel, only to say it would be a “broad range of education practitioners and experts” appointed by the governor.
Still, the job of the new task force wouldn’t change much from what Christie’s initial proposal called for: setting standards for a statewide evaluation system that weighs heavily – at least 51 percent – on student achievement measures. It will also make recommendations for a system that would allow the state to reward those educators who showed they boosted achievement.
Whether those measures will be state tests, local tests, less-tangible means, or all of the above will be discussed by the task force. And it will be discussed quickly, since the group is charged with coming back with a report to the governor by next March, speeding up the previous timeframe.
The change of plans caught many of the main stakeholder groups by surprise yesterday, with some complaining they were now being left out of the decision process. But most of them also acknowledged they were eager to see who will be selected before making any further judgment.
Principal Recruitment and Alternate route
This idea has not gotten the same attention as the others in New Jersey, home to the nation’s first “alternate route” track for teachers. It remains one the nation’s most prolific as well, placing as many as 40 percent of new teachers each year by some estimates.
In essence, the approach allows individuals from outside the traditional teacher education route to gain jobs in the classroom while essentially learning on the job, with ongoing courses and supervision in the first years.
The principals’ program would presumably work in a similar way, although the Christie administration did not release further details yesterday. Such alternate certification programs exist elsewhere, including in New York City, Memphis and Washington, D.C., with a push to open the field to those from management and other executive leadership careers.
Christie said in making the proposal that he wanted to expand recruitment for new school leaders, citing the ongoing research that points to the critical role that a principal plays in teacher and instructional quality.
Still, there will surely be questions. New Jersey’s alternate route for teachers has itself gone through its own growing pains in the past 20 years, with one recent study calling for greater accountability on how these teachers are trained and mentored in districts.
"Master" teacher title
The state’s Race to the Top applications first broached this proposal, essentially setting up a track that would allow exemplary teachers and principals the opportunity to move into an elite “master” category.
In that role, not only would these school leaders have greater pay under Christie’s plan, but also greater responsibilities in working with other teachers and administrators and leading improvement efforts.
As laid out in the Race to the Top bid, master teachers or principals would need to be gauged as “highly effective” in at least three straight years of evaluations, again relying on an evaluation system not yet in place.
“We intend to set a high bar for Master Teacher or Master Principals endorsement, and anticipate that only a select few teachers and school leaders will receive a Master Teacher or School Leader endorsement,” reads the Race to the Top application.
Christie said yesterday that these educators also would have a streamlined pathway for opening their own charter schools or academies within a district.
Such separate career tracks for educators are not unusual nationally, with Ohio among the states leading the way, but have typically faced resistance from unions and others worried about the competition it breeds among colleagues.
Pay by Performance vs. Seniority
This is a core principle in Christie’s reform agenda, and where the challenges grow exponentially. He is calling for legislation that would prohibit any provisions in school labor contracts that “allow for any compensation based on anything but merit.”
That stricture would essentially blow up every contract now on the books in New Jersey school districts, each with salary guides that decree a teacher move up the salary scale with each year of work and/or accumulation of academic credits or degrees.
“That should be gone,” Christie said yesterday.
Instead, Christie said teachers would see their pay tied to how well they perform under the aforementioned evaluation system, with student achievement a key component. He said an advanced degree could still earn higher pay, but it would be based on the condition the teacher has also proven himself or herself effective.
And any merit pay must be for individual teachers, he said, not schools as a whole. This is a big point of contention with the state’s teachers unions that generally oppose merit pay but have said school bonuses could be acceptable.
To be sure, this will be a major battle point in the Democratic-controlled legislature as well.
Tenure by Performance
Last and far from least, Christie seeks to redefine tenure protections for teachers, again tying both the granting of tenure and the removal of it to a teacher’s performance. This, too, would require new legislation.
“For those who don’t show they know how to teach, it shouldn’t be granted,” Christie said. “For those who are granted but don’t continue to perform, it should be taken away and the teacher shown the door.”
How this could work was also not yet defined. Several options have been under consideration, including requiring continued satisfactory teacher ratings or extending out the years needed for tenure from the current three.
Teacher unions argue that the tenure protections are required to protect teachers from arbitrary or vengeful dismissals, and they said there remains tracks to remove low-performing teachers, even if slow and costly.
Legislators like state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), chair of the Senate education committee, have taken up this issue, and she has said she would be willing to hold hearings on ways to improve the system.
New Jersey may gain some lessons from Colorado, where they have adopted a similar plan that ties tenure closely to effectiveness. There are still due process protections for teacher
“They’ve taken it off autopilot, and rather than the onus on the principal or district to prove they are not effective, it’s up to the teacher to prove they are,” said McGuinn.
The Record ‘Update: N.J. Gov. Christie calls for new methods to evaluate teachers, merit raises’
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Last updated: Tuesday September 28, 2010, 8:47 PM BY LESLIE BRODYThe Record STAFF WRITER
Governor Christie called for new laws Tuesday that would dramatically change the way teachers are evaluated and fired, and would award pay based on effectiveness rather than seniority.
Christie called to have earning tenure — and keeping it — dependent on proof that a teacher is effective in the classroom, judged in part by student test scores. He also wants a law to prohibit teacher contracts that allow for raises based on seniority alone.
He said teachers shouldn’t get raises just because they earned graduate degrees, either; there must be evidence the degree has an impact on student learning.
The current system for giving teachers raises at the end of each year says “Congratulations, you are still breathing, open up the bank account, here comes the money,” he said. “It’s laughable, right? It’s what happens every day in New Jersey.”
Christie’s agenda drew instant fire from the state’s largest teacher’s union.
“A test-score based evaluation system will harm New Jersey’s public schools by changing the focus from teaching and learning to drilling and testing,” said New Jersey Education Association President Barbara Keshishian. “It will instill a climate of fear and competition.”
The governor’s announcement came as education reform has catapulted into the national conversation. This month’s debut of the documentary “Waiting for 'Superman'” has audiences debating what’s wrong in American public schools. NBC’s “Education Summit” aired interviews this week with a spectrum of leaders including President Obama. And last week Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg pledged $100 million to the Newark schools.
To define a good teacher, the governor appointed a nine-member task force to develop a system of evaluations that will use multiple measures of student learning, including test scores. Student growth must comprise at least half of a teacher’s or school leader’s evaluation. Currently, individual districts have their own methods, often depending on yearly observations.
The new task force replaces a previously announced committee of about three dozen, and its members have not yet been named. They must report to the governor by March 1 with recommendations for statewide evaluations.
To make these evaluations possible, Christie also pledged $10 million in the next two years to upgrade the computer system that tracks students and links them to teachers. He also wants to reward the best educators as “master teachers” or “master principals,” who could get extra compensation for mentoring peers or founding a charter school. He wants to eventually put teacher evaluations online.
“We have great teachers, master teachers, and we should carry them on our shoulders to school every day and thank them for doing God’s work,” he said. “But when we have bad teachers, failed teachers, we should carry them out of school on a rail.”
NJEA Executive Director Vincent Giordano noted that New Jersey’s tenure laws already enable districts to withhold raises and fire ineffective teachers after due process hearings. That legal process is very expensive and time-consuming for districts, however, so very few teachers are removed for poor performance. Christie Spokesman Michael Drewniak said it was not clear how teachers could fight efforts to remove them under Christie’s proposal, or what due process would entail.
Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, supported the governor’s call.
“Many of these proposals are in line with our association’s policies and beliefs and we look forward to working with the administration and legislature in implementing them,” Belluscio said. “Changes in tenure laws, the seniority system and collective bargaining are long overdue, and they can improve the delivery of education.”
Leonia Superintendent of Schools Bernard Josefsberg said Christie’s ideas on teacher evaluation need more precision and discussion. “There isn’t all that much detail to convince me it will help create a revolution in student accomplishment.”
Christie’s proposals echoed reforms he has pushed for months, but he spelled them out in more detail. His call for change came at his first “town hall” on education policy at the Old Bridge township recreation center. Its roughly 200 seats were overflowing, with some in the crowd sporting Republican Party buttons.
New Jersey students are among the best in the nation, according to scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress. But its public schools are also among the nation’s most expensive, and inner city schools have been chronically troubled. Counting local, state and federal dollars, New Jersey spends $25 billion a year on education.
Before Christie’s town hall, the New Jersey Education Association sent out a preemptive strike Tuesday with a press release detailing independent studies that described flaws in even the most sophisticated efforts to judge teachers by student test scores. It also noted a report last week by the Project on Incentives in Teaching at Vanderbilt University that found that simply giving teachers merit pay did not lead to better student achievement.
Joseph Luongo, who recently retired as superintendent in Hasbrouck Heights, said merit pay is easy to talk about but hard to implement.
"It's good in theory but impractical in real life," he said, noting that it’s not possible to use student test scores as a measure when it comes to special education and subjects that aren't tested such as gym, music and art.
Allan Kahn, a retired New York City teacher who lives in Middlesex County, said before the town hall that Christie was doing an “excellent” job focusing on curbing expenses.
“He’s not against teachers, it’s the overall framework of excess costs,” Kahn said. “Unions are a business and they want as many members as they can.”
E-mail: brody@northjersey.com. Staff Writer Patricia Alex contributed to this story.
Governor Christie called for new laws Tuesday that would dramatically change the way teachers are evaluated and fired, and would award pay based on effectiveness rather than seniority.
Christie's announcement comes as education reform has catapulted into the national conversation.
Christie called to have earning tenure — and keeping it — dependent on proof that a teacher is effective in the classroom, judged in part by student test scores. He also wants a law to prohibit teacher contracts that allow for raises based on seniority alone.
He said teachers shouldn’t get raises just because they earned graduate degrees, either; there must be evidence the degree has an impact on student learning.
The current system for giving teachers raises at the end of each year says “Congratulations, you are still breathing, open up the bank account, here comes the money,” he said. “It’s laughable, right? It’s what happens every day in New Jersey.”
Christie’s agenda drew instant fire from the state’s largest teacher’s union.
“A test-score based evaluation system will harm New Jersey’s public schools by changing the focus from teaching and learning to drilling and testing,” said New Jersey Education Association President Barbara Keshishian. “It will instill a climate of fear and competition.”
The governor’s announcement came as education reform has catapulted into the national conversation. This month’s debut of the documentary “Waiting for 'Superman'” has audiences debating what’s wrong in American public schools. NBC’s “Education Summit” aired interviews this week with a spectrum of leaders including President Obama. And last week Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg pledged $100 million to the Newark schools.
To define a good teacher, the governor appointed a nine-member task force to develop a system of evaluations that will use multiple measures of student learning, including test scores. Student growth must comprise at least half of a teacher’s or school leader’s evaluation. Currently, individual districts have their own methods, often depending on yearly observations.
The new task force replaces a previously announced committee of about three dozen, and its members have not yet been named. They must report to the governor by March 1 with recommendations for statewide evaluations.
To make these evaluations possible, Christie also pledged $10 million in the next two years to upgrade the computer system that tracks students and links them to teachers. He also wants to reward the best educators as “master teachers” or “master principals,” who could get extra compensation for mentoring peers or founding a charter school. He wants to eventually put teacher evaluations online.
“We have great teachers, master teachers, and we should carry them on our shoulders to school every day and thank them for doing God’s work,” he said. “But when we have bad teachers, failed teachers, we should carry them out of school on a rail.”
NJEA Executive Director Vincent Giordano noted that New Jersey’s tenure laws already enable districts to withhold raises and fire ineffective teachers after due process hearings. That legal process is very expensive and time-consuming for districts, however, so very few teachers are removed for poor performance. Christie Spokesman Michael Drewniak said it was not clear how teachers could fight efforts to remove them under Christie’s proposal, or what due process would entail.
Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, supported the governor’s call.
“Many of these proposals are in line with our association’s policies and beliefs and we look forward to working with the administration and legislature in implementing them,” Belluscio said. “Changes in tenure laws, the seniority system and collective bargaining are long overdue, and they can improve the delivery of education.”
Leonia Superintendent of Schools Bernard Josefsberg said Christie’s ideas on teacher evaluation need more precision and discussion. “There isn’t all that much detail to convince me it will help create a revolution in student accomplishment.”
Christie’s proposals echoed reforms he has pushed for months, but he spelled them out in more detail. His call for change came at his first “town hall” on education policy at the Old Bridge township recreation center. Its roughly 200 seats were overflowing, with some in the crowd sporting Republican Party buttons.
New Jersey students are among the best in the nation, according to scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress. But its public schools are also among the nation’s most expensive, and inner city schools have been chronically troubled. Counting local, state and federal dollars, New Jersey spends $25 billion a year on education.
Before Christie’s town hall, the New Jersey Education Association sent out a preemptive strike Tuesday with a press release detailing independent studies that described flaws in even the most sophisticated efforts to judge teachers by student test scores. It also noted a report last week by the Project on Incentives in Teaching at Vanderbilt University that found that simply giving teachers merit pay did not lead to better student achievement.
Joseph Luongo, who recently retired as superintendent in Hasbrouck Heights, said merit pay is easy to talk about but hard to implement.
"It's good in theory but impractical in real life," he said, noting that it’s not possible to use student test scores as a measure when it comes to special education and subjects that aren't tested such as gym, music and art.
Allan Kahn, a retired New York City teacher who lives in Middlesex County, said before the town hall that Christie was doing an “excellent” job focusing on curbing expenses.
“He’s not against teachers, it’s the overall framework of excess costs,” Kahn said. “Unions are a business and they want as many members as they can.”
E-mail: brody@northjersey.com. Staff Writer Patricia Alex contributed to this story.
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Star ledger ‘Gov. Christie pushes for teacher merit pay based on students' performance’
Published: Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 8:52 PM Updated: Wed, September 29, 2010, 5:19 AM
Star-Ledger Staff
OLD BRIDGE — Student performance should count for at least 50 percent toward whether or not a teacher receives a raise or tenure, Gov. Chris Christie said during a town hall discussion in Old Bridge where he outlined a six-point plan for reforming education in the state.
Christie billed the reforms as solutions for an education system he described as too costly to fail so many children. Many are similar to proposals made in the state’s failed Race to the Top application for $400 million in federal education funds.
"I’m a product of the public school system in this state," Christie said, "But I have no patience for a system that says ‘That’s good for me, but depending on your zip code, that doesn’t work for you. You won’t have the same opportunity to be governor that I had."
The intended reforms include merit pay, changes to tenure, completing a statewide data system that tracks student achievement, forming of a teacher evaluation task force, creating the designation of master teacher and allowing alternate route certification for principals.
Though the Republican governor can accomplish four of his proposals through regulations and executive orders, the two most contentious — merit pay and tenure reform - require action by a state legislature controlled by the Democrats.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
• Merit pay for teachers who improve students scores may not work, research shows
• Gov. Chris Christie to outline N.J. education reform agenda in town hall meeting
• Gov. Christie reveals plans to limit N.J. superintendents' salaries, base pay on merit
• Gov. Chris Christie to take education reform agenda to Hoboken
• N.J. Board of Education vows to continue reform after Race to the Top loss
• Oprah to host N.J. Gov. Christie, Newark Mayor Booker for $100M school gift by Facebook CEO
• Gov. Christie, on eve of Oprah appearance, says Newark schools 'in dire need'
• Merit pay for teachers who improve students scores may not work, research shows
On tenure reform, Christie said he would propose a bill that affords every child the right to an "effective teacher" and says tenure must be granted and taken away based on teachers’ effectiveness evaluations.
"Tenure has become a job guarantee regardless of performance or success," Christie said. "Tenure has become the sclerosis that coats the veins of our school system."
On merit pay, Christie said he wants to prohibit seniority or graduate degree attainment in fields other than math and science from influencing salary increases for teachers. The large pool of funding needed to start a merit pay program would come from the savings of firing bad teachers through tenure reform, Christie said.
"Any type of compensation that allows for anything but merit - gone," Christie said.
Just before the town hall began, Christie signed an executive order backstage creating a task force on teacher effectiveness. In the next seven to 10 days, Christie said he will name education experts to the task force, and in six months, he expects those members to design a "fair, thorough, data-driven teacher evaluation system" that will serve as the foundation for Christie’s merit pay and tenure reforms.
NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said Christie’s suggested reliance on student test scores to determine a teacher’s worth has been proven scientifically ineffective. Keshishian cited the findings of a recent Vanderbilt University study, which shows merit pay has no influence on student achievement.
"He is proposing reforms that are not based on good educational research or practice," Keshishian said. "What he proposes - an over-reliance on student test scores to make critical decisions from compensation to employment - is fatally flawed."
Though Keshishian seemed skeptical of Democrats’ willingness to work with Christie on merit pay or tenure reform legislation, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats said, "Student achievement must be the most important factor for any educational system, and we look forward to working with officials and stakeholders in this effort."
Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) applauded Christie’s plan as recognition of the drastic need for improvement in New Jersey’s educational system.
"We must acknowledge that longevity should not be the sole factor in determining a salary increase and that performance counts," DeCroe said in a statement.
Bruce Baker, an associate professor at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education, shares the NJEA’s concerns about linking teacher evaluations to student achievement data. Baker said research shows student test scores can be unreliable and severely biased based on who teaches whom.
When asked specifically which in-class student assessment or standardized test Christie wants to use to evaluate teachers, spokesman Michael Drewniak would not comment.
Statehouse Bureau writer Lisa Fleisher contributed to this report.
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Gov. Chris Christie unveils education reforms; NJ Education Association responds |
FLASHBACK: Governor Christie Puts Children First with Proposal to Cut Out-of-Classroom CostsJuly Reform Proposed Cap On Administrator Pay
"But the reality is school districts can find cost savings and budget more effectively with the funds they have. It is possible to lower costs and protect the quality of education, prevent layoffs and limit property tax increases. School districts need the tools to act, and I am committed to providing them."
– Governor Chris Christie, 3/23/10
Press Release Highlights
Trenton, NJ – Continuing the administration’s efforts to ensure the maximum amount of education funding stays in the classroom, Governor Chris Christie…unveiled a proposal to cap and reform school administrators’ salaries. The proposal would result in a salary reduction for 366 school superintendents, upon the expiration of their current contracts. …“While families and school districts across the state cope with fewer resources and continued fiscal challenges, many school administrators continue to receive salaries that are out of proportion with the private sector and current economic realities. On the other hand, many administrators like Superintendent Uszenski stepped up this year to meet the financial challenges in their districts by accepting a voluntary pay freeze and I applaud their efforts and willingness to share in the sacrifice for New Jersey students,” said Governor Christie. “It is our responsibility, in state government and at the local level, to act in every possible way to ensure that as many education dollars remain in the classroom as possible. This cap will limit excessive administrator pay and ensure that more dollars are available for our children.”
Spotswood Superintendent Walt Uszenski, along with all of the Spotswood’s administrative staff, accepted a wage freeze this year to help the district manage its financial difficulties.Under the proposal, the maximum base salary that a district could pay a superintendent would rise with the size of the school district. The top salary for the superintendent of a K-8 district with fewer than 250 students would be $120,000. From there, salary maximums would gradually step up with the size of the school district to the point that the superintendent of a district with up to 10,000 students could be paid a maximum of $175,000. A superintendent in one of New Jersey’s 16 districts with more than 10,000 students could earn a higher base salary.
Read the full release from July 15th here.
Fact Sheet Highlights
The Christie Reform Agenda: Cutting Costs and Directing Dollars to the Classroom
The Christie Reform Agenda includes a comprehensive tool kit to provide municipalities and school districts the necessary reform measures that will allow them to keep costs low and fund priority services. The Governor’s latest reform proposal caps education administrator pay and puts an end to abuses in the system.
This action has the potential to save almost $9.8 million and help ensure that the maximum amount of education funding stays in the classroom. On average, superintendents’ salaries have risen over twice the rate of inflation - a nearly 46 percent increase since 2001. This is a higher increase than teacher compensation or overall education spending. The ultimate cost to New Jersey taxpayers is over $100 million.
The Christie proposal will cut out-of-classroom costs by capping school administrators’ salaries and reforming how they are paid.
Bringing Salaries In-Line with District Demands
The Christie proposal brings superintendent salaries in line with district needs. Right now, superintendents in districts with over 1,000 students earn an average of $192,764, while superintendents in districts with fewer than 1,000 students earn an average of $152,764.
These salaries are out of proportion with the private sector, current economic realities and district demands. Under the current proposal, the base pay of superintendents would be capped according to a sliding scale that takes into account the student enrollment of the district(s) overseen, with an increment of $5,000 for each additional district served by a single superintendent, and an increment of $2,500 if the district(s) include(s) at least one high school.
Student Enrollment of District(s) Maximum
0 – 250 $120,000
251 – 750 $135,000
751 – 1,500 $150,000
1,501 – 3,000 $165,000
3,001 – 10,000 $175,000
Over 10,000 *
* Superintendent compensation in the sixteen districts with student enrollment over 10,000 would be subject to separate rules developed by the Department of Education.
School boards would not be permitted to increase a superintendent’s base pay (for example, with longevity increases) beyond these salary caps. Additionally, no superintendent contract that includes a compensation package above these salary caps could be extended; at its expiration, the new compensation package of the superintendent would need to conform to this new policy.
Rewarding Success: Individual Year Incentives for PerformanceFor all new contracts, upon attainment of pre-determined milestones, school districts will be able to provide superintendents a non-pensionable, individual year merit stipend, awarded on the basis of the school district’s year-to-year progress relative to specific performance metrics of student learning.
Read the full fact sheet here.
# # # www.nj.gov/governor/
Politickernj.com ‘Christie: Six ways to fix schools’
By Timothy J. Carroll | September 28th, 2010 - 5:19pm
OLD BRIDGE - Gov. Chris Christie hates teachers, bad teachers.
“Your performance was awful, but we don’t look at that,” Christie said, lampooning New Jersey’s teacher tenure system. “All we look at is, are you still breathing. Congratulations, you’re still breathing. Open up your bank account, here comes your money.”
“No other profession deals with its failures that way,” he told the crowd gathered in an Old Bridge municipal building.
He detailed six reforms, including two that need legislative approval.
1. Data systems: He said the state will dedicate $10 million in both the 2012 and 2013 Department of Education budgets to improve the NJ SMART student data center. Because, Christie said, in order to tie teacher pay to student success, the state has to know when students are succeeding.
2. Teacher evaluations: Before coming on stage, Christie signed an executive order to create a Task Force on Teacher Effectiveness. He’ll appoint nine members who will present the governor with a teacher performance system in six months.
The system, he said, will use student performance as the primary component, although he said, “There is no pre-conceived result that I want here,” other than a “fair and thorough” evaluation process.
Teacher tenure, pay, licensing, recruiting, among other items will be tied to this performance evaluation.
3. Increase principal pool: Christie said his administration will create “alternate route programs” to increase the pool of available principals, “with out all these requirements that we (currently) put in the way.”
4. Master designation: In order to “expand professional opportunity” to successful teachers and administrators, Christie is creating the rank of “master teacher” and “master principal” to encourage successful educators to remain in education.
Some of the benefits are increased pay, further training, and a “streamlined” path to creating their own charter schools.
5. Restructure compensation: Seniority-based pay will not work, he said.
Nor will granting pay raises to non-relative graduate degree attainment.
These compensation systems should be based on merit, and whether they “demonstrably” increase student performance. He’ll need the legislature’s help on this one and the next.
6. Base tenure on merit: Christie said tenure makes sense in the context in which it started: Higher education. But in lower schools, he said, “Tenure becomes a job guarantee,” regardless of success.
Tenure, Christie said, is “the sclerosis that coats the veins of our school system.”
Under his proposal, tenure could be removed based on performance metrics.
“(The good teachers) deserve to get paid more,” he said. “The bad ones deserve to get fired.”
“I don’t bash teachers,” Christie said. “I bash their stubborn, self-interested union. That’s who I bash.”
He said the American Teacher Federation pumped $1 million into the mayor’s race in Washington D.C. to combat this type of reform.
Christie said he and Newark Mayor Cory Booker have secured $40 million of their $100 million match the donation of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
But that $200 million pales in comparison to the taxpayer’s $900 million that went to Newark schools last year.
“It’s a fraction of the money that you already spent,” he said.
“Go to some of the schools in Newark,” he said. “See if you can possibly learn with that leadership, or lack of leadership (…) We are going to pick a great superintendent for that district.”
He called out Newark teachers who “artificially rigged” graduation rates to keep their jobs, and said the $24,000 per student costs in the Brick City shouldn’t produce a 50 percent high school dropout rate.
“We are paying a king’s fortune for an education system that isn’t giving our children the royal treatment.”
On his sign hung stage-left, 84 days remain for the legislature to pass his reforms before disappearing for winter break.
The Christie Reform Agenda: Governor Christie’s Reforms Build on a Record of Improving Education in New Jersey
“Together, we can build better schools that train our students for a brighter future. Yes, we will have to make better use of the resources showered on education. Yes, we will have to hold schools accountable and give people the choice to pursue alternatives to schools that fail. Yes, we will have to reward excellence, and not tolerate failure. But we can do these things—and once again be a home for growth.”
- Governor Chris Christie’s Inaugural Address, 1/19/2010
Governor Christie Has Made Education Reform A Top Priority In His Administration’s First 8 Months
· Approved seven new charter schools representing the greatest single year increase since 2001. These new additions boost the number of charter schools now operating in New Jersey to 73. The new charter schools carry a combined maximum enrollment of 928 students in 2010-11, increasing the statewide charter school enrollment to 25,570.
· Protected already-underfunded charter schools from further cuts in FY 2010-2011 budget.
· Called for one-year salary freeze and 1.5% health benefits contribution, provides path forward for school districts to protect New Jersey school children, prevent layoffs and program cuts
· Signed (S-920) legislation to encourage public-private partnerships for higher education institutions.
· Unveiled a proposal to cap and reform school administrators' salaries.
· Signed A-355/S-1073 establishing a permanent Interdistrict Public School Choice Program.
· Approved $270 Million in facilities grants for school districts with more than 175 Regular Operating Districts statewide eligible for partial state funding of 740 projects.
· $45.3 million in School Improvement Grants Targeted to improve schools and opportunities for thousands of urban children
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· Announced nearly $16 million in state funds for 25 Vocational School District Facilities Projects.
· Offered plan to provide additional state aid to school districts that adopt salary freeze.
· Ordered and directed the creation of the New Jersey Higher Education Task Force.
Governor Christie Continues His Push To Strengthen Schools And Education In New Jersey
· The governor supports giving parents and children a choice to attend better schools.
o "We will do many good things for charters schools. In fact, I’ve held charter schools harmless in this budget because you already pay enough," he told more than 250 charter school educators. "There are going to be more charter schools a year from now than there are today." (MaryAnn Spoto, “N.J. Gov. Chris Christie leaves charter school budget untouched,” The Star-Ledger, 3/18/2010)
o “You are the masters of doing more with less because you have been consistently underfunded by the statute that was passed to establish you,” Christie said of charter schools. “…This is a fight worth having and I’m doing what I know is right,” Christie said. “New Jerseyans are hard workers who speak loudly and care deeply. It’s about time you’ve had some leadership to match.” (Kimberly Steinberg, “Christie puts state’s support behind charter schools,” Atlanticville, 3/25/2010)
o “We want to have a robust public inter-district choice program so that those districts that are succeeding are encouraged and incentivized to allow children from failing districts to come there because the bottom line is we want all types of choice for folks.” (Governor Chris Christie at the American Federation of Children National Policy Summit Dinner in Washington, D.C. on Monday, May 3, 2010)
o “Our basic principle is this, and I know this is yours, parents and children deserve a choice. Now this a very, very simple straight forward principle that you would think in the abstract, that no one can disagree with. But let's not stop there, let's add the layer onto it, that parents and children who are being failed by a public school system who's cost are exuberant, and who's results are insulting, deserve a choice.” (Governor Chris Christie at the American Federation of Children National Policy Summit Dinner in Washington, D.C. on Monday, May 3, 2010)
· Students deserve high-quality and accountable teachers; teachers deserve to be rewarded for excellent achievement in the classroom.
o “Merit pay, tenure reform, greater teacher accountability -- they are all part of Gov. Chris Christie's promises for improving public education in New Jersey.” (John Mooney, “School reforms can’t proceed without data,” The Star-Ledger, 5/11/2010)
o "I believe that merit pay has to go to individual teachers. I believe that if there are layoffs, that those layoffs should be based upon merit and not based upon seniority…" (Teacher union fumes as Governor Christie ties performance pay to bid for $400 million grant, Associated Press, 6/2/2010)
o On education, he said he wants to change the tenure system and reiterated his support for teacher pay based on student performance. (Matt Friedman, “Gov. Christie pushes reform agenda for N.J. ethics rules, pension and health benefits,” NJ.com, 9/8/2010)
o Among the ideas the governor is pushing is paying for teachers based on their performance. (“Christie Slams N.J. Teacher Union, Calls For Ed. Reform,” CBS-2 New York, 9/7/2010)
o As an example of the need for education reform, he pointed at Newark, spending $24,000 per student – mostly state funded per the Abbott ruling – yet has a 50 percent dropout rate. He pitched a new teacher merit pay system, among other things. (Timothy J. Carroll, “Christie reform: 'cleaning up the empties,'” PolitickerNJ, 9/7/201)
o …He called for paying teachers partly based on how well their students perform. The idea is to hold educators accountable… (Geoff Mulvihill, “NJ governor says he'll start laying out reforms,” Associated Press, 9/7/2010)
· Reforming higher education is vital to creating jobs and spurring economic growth.
o "New Jersey's higher education institutions must be given the necessary tools to plan their growth through creative and responsible arrangements that do not leave the funding burden solely on institution budgets," said Governor Christie. "Public-private partnerships are a key mechanism to provide that flexibility and accommodate growth in our state and county colleges, while creating jobs and spurring economic growth. The legislation signed today provides needed tools that will be critical to maintaining our colleges' status as world-class learning centers. (Governor Christie Signs Legislation to Encourage Public-Private Partnerships for Higher Education Institutions, 5/5/2010)
o "To compete and be prosperous in this 21st century economy, we must have a system of higher education that keeps up with the demands of today's changing marketplace," Governor Christie said. "New Jersey's institutions of higher learning are critically important to the economic growth of our state and must be afforded the necessary tools to stay competitive.” (Governor Christie Takes First Steps Toward Long-Term Higher Education Reform by Creating New Jersey Higher Education Task Force, 5/7/2010)
· The governor’s bold reforms have garnered considerable attention of opinion makers in New Jersey and around the country.
o “Christie vows to proceed with the changes he wants anyway. That could be good since some of his ideas are more in line with the reforms that the Obama administration wants to make to improve public education, including linking teachers' pay to student performance and making it easier to fire bad teachers. The plan would also eliminate seniority and use teacher effectiveness to make job cuts. Those are much-needed steps to improve failing schools and hold educators accountable for student achievement. It means rewarding the best teachers and principals.” (“Editorial: There's a better way,” Inquirer, 6/5/2010)
o “What he is doing is what government should be doing - freeing the citizenry to decide for themselves and forcing marginal or poor schools to heed their “customer base” or "go out of business". The message is market based but aimed at government run education - "the free ride is over". Christie points out that in Newark, NJ, taxpayers pay $24,000 per pupil per year. So in a class of 20 you have almost a half a million dollars spent. I'd like to say "invested" but it’s hard to do with a system Christie characterized as an "absolutely disgraceful public education system." So cheers to Christie.” (Bruce McQuain, “Speaking truth to power – New Jersey style,” Washington Examiner, 6/4/2010)
o “…Areas in which Christie insists he has no intention of compromising — like merit pay and abolishing seniority-based layoffs...The governor said he was so committed to the items on his reform agenda that “they should not be compromised to achieve a contrived consensus among the various affected special-interest groups.” Good for him…But it’s refreshing to see a politician who not only understands the need for serious education reform but is wholly committed to it — in action as well as words. Well done, governor.” (“Grade-A governor,” New York Post, 6/6/2010)
o “We need children to thrive in every one of our neighborhood public schools. That tough job will be done by teachers, not bureaucrats. Leadership is a tricky thing, and diagnosing problems and hypothesizing about big-picture improvements are a lot easier than actually improving education. The governor has made good headway on superintendent pay, with new caps and bonuses based on merit. Perhaps that can serve as a way forward on merit pay for teachers.” (“Race is on,” The Record, 8/1/2010)
