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NJ Spotlight - Speculation Swirls Around Cerf’s Successor, Impact on Policies and Pending Reforms…Will new education commissioner make own mark or simply pick up the baton?
The Record - Full plate awaits New Jersey's next education chief ‘…Several advocates said the department needed a steady, experienced hand during a time of major flux, with negotiations looming over the budget Christie will propose Feb. 25. Cerf is stepping down Feb. 28 to become chief executive officer of Amplify Insight, an educational technology firm that is part of News Corp.“You have to have someone who can jump in and run the ship with an in-depth understanding of how it works,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools…’
Star Ledger - NJ education commissioner sees no conflict in new private sector job
NJ Spotlight - Speculation Swirls Around Cerf’s Successor, Impact on Policies and Pending Reforms
John Mooney | February 12, 2014
Will new education commissioner make own mark or simply pick up the baton?
In the last 20 years, New Jersey has had eight state education commissioners, a rate of roughly one every two-and-a-half years.
Now, with Chris Cerf’s announcement this week that he is leaving the post – in his case, after three full years -- New Jersey is about to get another commissioner who will bring his or her own brand of leadership and management style to both education policy in the state and the operation of its 800-employee state Department of Education.
But with Cerf’s departure coming midway through Gov. Chris Christie’s stint as governor, the new education commissioner may be more beholden than most to what has happened before, implementing policies that have already been decided, rather than coming up with new ones.
Such was the sense yesterday in the reaction to Cerf’s plans to take a job as a chief executive at Amplify Inc., an educational software firm led by former New York City chancellor Joel Klein.
Above all else, the next commissioner will need to be someone who will implement – and maybe adjust -- what Cerf had set in course, several observers said, be it new teacher-evaluation requirements or the state’s transition to the Common Core State Standards and new online testing.
“This is going to have to be a person who needs to figure out a way to make it all work,” said Michael Vrancik, chief lobbyist for the New Jersey School Boards Association. “That’s a pretty tall order.”
The rumor mill was flying with speculation about who would be Cerf’s successor, something that Christie’s office would not divulge yesterday.
A short list gleaned from the speculation yesterday included the names of former commissioners David Hespe and Rochelle Hendricks, current assistant commissioners including Peter Shulman, and prominent district superintendents such as Brian Zychowski of North Brunswick. None of them would comment much yesterday, with an announcement expected in the coming weeks before Cerf leaves office at the end of the month.
There was plenty of reaction to Cerf’s departure itself, ranging from praise in a statement from Christie to a variety of comments from some of the education groups.
“For more than three years, Commissioner Cerf has served New Jersey as one of the most passionate and articulate voices for the greatest civil rights challenge of our time: delivering a high quality education for every child in our state, regardless of zip code or socioeconomic status,” Christie said in a statement.
The New Jersey Education Association stood out as the most critical in its comments, with NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer starting a lengthy statement released in the afternoon with questions about whether Cerf would now be profiting from the state’s push toward more data-driven instruction and online testing.
“In Cerf’s new position, he and his company will profit from selling assessment products and services to public schools struggling to adapt to exactly the kind of misguided mandates that Cerf’s Department of Education is currently imposing on New Jersey’s schools,” the statement said. “While it is clearly a very good career move for Commissioner Cerf, he leaves New Jersey at a time when schools, educators and students are struggling with these new mandates.”
Amplify Insight, the division of Amplify that Cerf will lead, specializes in technology- driven assessment tools. State officials yesterday said the state has no standing or pending contracts with any Amplify divisions, nor does it appear to have any business in the four state-run districts of Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and Camden.
A spokeswoman for Amplify yesterday said it has business in only two New Jersey school districts, Mount Olive and Elizabeth.
Beyond discussion about Cerf’s departure, attention yesterday also turned to what’s next. The state faces a long list of initiatives launched under Cerf, with some already under way and others moving to the forefront.
The state Assembly’s education committee held a lengthy hearing yesterday on the new standards and the upcoming testing. The NJEA was among several groups calling for delays in their implementation, or at least their consequences for districts and educators.
Cerf has opposed any delays, but would the next commissioner consider it?
Teacher evaluation has been among the prickliest topics for school districts, with deadlines in place for new student performance measures to be in place by this spring. The Christie administration has rebuffed requests for delays. Will the next commissioner?
Maybe most contentious has been the debate over the state’s long-term takeovers of districts like Newark and its recent takeover of Camden schools.
In each case, the state’s appointed superintendents have pressed for expanded charter schools to provide more opportunities for students, while Cerf has been a lightning rod for what community opponents assail as “privatization” of their districts.
As the policies proceed, will the next commissioner face the same criticism?
The new commissioner will also have to handle other issues that stir up less passion. For instance, the Christie administration is about to announce its new state budget, which is a routine process but also one that contains the districts’ all-important state-aid figures.
Many observers said yesterday that they hope the new schools chief will help bring some experience and stability to a job where so much uncertainly is swirling at the moment.
“He or she is going to have to step in on a dime,” said Lynne Strickland, the longtime executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, the suburban schools group. “We’re in the middle of a budget cycle, major policy initiatives under way. It will be helpful if that person knows how things work in Trenton and in the department as well.”
“We need a pragmatic pick, someone who can hit the ground running,” she said.
Zychowski, the North Brunswick superintendent rumored as a possible candidate for Cerf’s job but who was denying it yesterday, said that as a school leader, he hopes the next commissioner won’t bring a whole new set of initiatives.
“What I expect next is difficult implementation of what has started,” he said. “In some ways, we’re still at pre-implementation, and I am just hoping the next commissioner will stay focused on these . . . Let’s get this done.”
In an interview this week, Cerf agreed there is unfinished business for his successor to complete. He sent out a letter to school districts yesterday reflecting on what he considered his main accomplishments.
“All of that is in our rear-view mirror,” he said in the interview when asked about his policy accomplishments. “And yet all of that constitutes what is equally in the execution and implementation phase. So, if you want to characterize it as unfinished business, I would say that all of these lines of work are in need of continued and faithful implementation.”
While Cerf would not disclose whom he had recommended as his successor, he said he felt the department was in a good position to carry on his work.
“I think the department is really on a path to execute a lot of the initiatives that we have launched,” he said Monday. “I feel very good about the hands in which I am leaving it in.”
The Record - Full plate awaits New Jersey's next education chief ‘…Several advocates said the department needed a steady, experienced hand during a time of major flux, with negotiations looming over the budget Christie will propose Feb. 25. Cerf is stepping down Feb. 28 to become chief executive officer of Amplify Insight, an educational technology firm that is part of News Corp.“You have to have someone who can jump in and run the ship with an in-depth understanding of how it works,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools…’
Tuesday February 11, 2014, 10:00 PM
BY LESLIE BRODY
Governor Christie has built part of his national reputation on his victory getting a tenure law passed and reining in teachers’ benefits. So when his education commissioner, Chris Cerf, announced this week that he was leaving the administration, the question of who would replace him took on added significance.
In conversations with a range of education insiders, several names kept coming up. They included former Education Commissioner David Hespe, who served as Cerf’s chief of staff before becoming president of Burlington County College in August 2012, and Peter Shulman, the department’s “chief talent officer” overseeing the rollout of the new teacher evaluation system. Officials at the department and governor’s office declined to comment on candidates for the job.
Whoever gets Cerf’s $141,000 job – whether tapped as a temporary “acting” chief or formally confirmed – will take over an agency in the midst of complex initiatives intended to boost teacher quality and elevate instruction for nearly 1.4 million children. Cerf’s successor will face pushing ahead with Christie’s agenda for overhauling evaluations, expanding school choice and toughening graduation requirements, projects where much work remains to be done.
Adding to the pressure, schools are gearing up for a trial run this spring of new online tests that are supposed to reflect the Common Core standards, a rigorous, voluntary set of national guidelines for what children should learn in each grade.
Several advocates said the department needed a steady, experienced hand during a time of major flux, with negotiations looming over the budget Christie will propose Feb. 25. Cerf is stepping down Feb. 28 to become chief executive officer of Amplify Insight, an educational technology firm that is part of News Corp.
“You have to have someone who can jump in and run the ship with an in-depth understanding of how it works,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools. She said Hespe, who served as education counsel and commissioner under Republican Gov. Christie Whitman, has a long history with the department, knows the staff and understands maneuvering in the State House.
Hespe, who led a Christie administration task force looking at ways to free districts from burdensome regulations, declined to comment on whether he had been approached for the commissioner’s post.
Two statewide unions, the New Jersey Education Association and the smaller American Federation of Teachers, said in separate releases that they hoped the next commissioner would delay the debut of new evaluations that rely partly on student progress. The new test-related measurements, based on this spring’s scores, will be the first to count in formal reviews. The unions have argued the methodology is flawed and over-testing hurts children’s love of learning.
“We look forward to working with the next commissioner to slow down the Department of Education’s headlong rush toward a disastrous implementation of the new evaluation system and the standardized testing associated with it,” said New Jersey Education Association President Wendell Steinhauer. “We call on the next commissioner to focus on doing things right rather than doing them quickly.”
Cerf responded that the 2012 tenure law required the new evaluation system be implemented this school year. He noted that the law was negotiated with New Jersey Education Association leaders and passed unanimously by the Legislature. The union “has not reconciled itself to a commitment they made,” Cerf said. “This is pure posturing on their part.”
One education source said that to keep its agenda moving forward, the Christie administration would have to tap a leader who could inspire the top education team members to stay; if they quit, major initiatives would lose steam.
Other potential candidates whose names surfaced in interviews included Brian Zychowski, North Brunswick superintendent who led the task force that made recommendations for overhauling evaluations in 2011; Brian Osborne, superintendent in South Orange-Maplewood and part of a task force overseeing the evaluation pilot; and Andres Alonso, a former Baltimore superintendent and former deputy chancellor in New York City.
Zychowski said he had not been approached by the governor’s office. Osborne, Alonso and Shulman could not be reached.
Email: brody@northjersey.com. twitter: @lesliebrody
Star Ledger - NJ education commissioner sees no conflict in new private sector job
By Peggy McGlone, Feb. 12, 2014
Departing Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf says he "suspects" his future employer does business with New Jersey schools, but that doesn’t mean his appointment should raise any eyebrows.
Cerf announced Tuesday he is stepping down at the end of the month to become CEO of Amplify Insight, a division of the New York-based education firm run by former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. Cerf was Klein’s deputy from 2006 to 2009.
According to the company, Amplify Insight provides professional and consulting services for teachers to measure student progress and gauge individual students’ needs.
Cerf said he doesn’t know of any specific contracts Amplify has with New Jersey
schools, though he said the company has none with the state of New Jersey. "I can’t say with any measure of certainty now, but I suspect the answer is yes. They serve over 3 million students in 50 states," Cerf said.
Cerf said there are regulations in place that prevent him from trading on his connections, including soliciting business, and he pledged to follow them. But he scoffed at the notion he shouldn’t take a job in the private sector.
"McGraw Hill and Pearson and Apple and IBM have contracts," with school districts, he said. "That’s where the rules come into play."
The 59-year-old former history teacher leaves Trenton with the same plain-spoken directness he had when he arrived three years ago. Cerf brokered the landmark 2012 teacher tenure law that linked positive evaluations with student achievement, funded high-quality preschool programs and reformed the collection and use of data to aid student achievement.
In a letter Tuesday to superintendents and charter school leaders, he repeated one of his frequent themes: the difficulty of striking "the right balance between celebrating the state’s great successes and calling out the need to continually improve."
Cerf said he leaves a department poised to complete the "radical mission" of putting students first and increasing the number of students who graduate high school prepared for either college or a 21st Century career
"We have the vision and design behind us, and we have launched the implementation," he said. "The next phase is execution, execution, execution."
A proponent of school choice, Cerf has supported charter schools, adding 37 new ones statewide while shutting down 10 ineffective ones. He has been a vocal cheerleader for Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson and her "One Newark" plan that partners the state’s largest school district with the city’s growing charter school community.
Cerf said his departure won’t harm Anderson’s bold effort.
"Cami is an extremely talented, very powerful individual with an indomitable spirit,
who passionately and deeply believes in the children of Newark," he said. "She has the governor’s support and this department’s support. I think she will be just fine."
Anderson described Cerf, who hired her three years ago, as a "great partner and civil servant."
"He’s committed to a seamless transition so we can stay the course in pursuit of our bold goal of 100 excellent schools in Newark," she said.
The praise for Cerf was not universal. Newark Teachers Union President Joe Del Grosso criticized Cerf for his support of charter schools.
"I look for commissioners who are champions of public schools, period," Del Grosso said.
Cerf said Del Grosso and others distort the facts in order to promote their agendas.
"Joe Del Grosso is representing the teachers of Newark. His mission is to maximize their compensation and their job security," Cerf said.
