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Herald News-Northjersey.com - Herald News Editorial: Cerf had his successes
Star Ledger - Chris Cerf's solid record as NJ education guru: Editorial
Asbury Park Press Editorial: Cerf’s Successor needs An Open Mind
NJ Spotlight - Opinion: Chris Cerf's Decision to Leave Education Post is New Jersey's Loss
Herald News-Northjersey.com - Herald News Editorial: Cerf had his successes
Friday, February 14, 2014
CHRIS CERF became the state's education commissioner at a very difficult time in 2010. Cerf's predecessor, Bret Schundler, had just been fired after the state botched a $400 million federal grant application and his new boss, Governor Christie, was in the middle of a very public spat with the state teachers' union. Making things even rockier for Cerf, he was "acting commissioner" for months because a state senator used a legislative maneuver known as senatorial courtesy to block his permanent appointment. Cerf seemed unfazed by all that, telling The Record as he took the job that he was an "unapologetic school reformer," adding that the nation's educational achievement gap was a national shame.
After a little more than three years overseeing public education in New Jersey, Cerf will leave his post at the end of the month. Clearly, Cerf's main accomplishment was persuading the New Jersey Education Association to support changing teacher tenure laws, a feat many observers considered impossible. The new regulations require teachers to work four years instead of three before being eligible for tenure and, more importantly, teachers can lose tenure if they continually get poor evaluations. The NJEA is now criticizing the state's evaluation system, parts of which rely on student test results. That should not detract from the bipartisan accomplishment Cerf helped bring about. Tenure reform over time will improve education by rewarding good teachers and weeding out those who are subpar.
The outgoing commissioner also can take credit for the appointment of Cami Anderson as superintendent in the state-run Newark school district. With Anderson at the helm, the district reached agreement with the teachers' union to base raises partly on merit. That brings teacher pay increases more in line with what happens in the "real world" and, we hope, will serve as a model for other districts going forward. The state Education Department also reappointed Paterson superintendent of schools Donnie Evans, which should bring more stability to a district still under state supervision. But not all of Cerf's initiatives bore fruit.
Giving all parents more choice in selecting schools for their children has been an aim of the Christie administration since it took office four years ago. To that end, Cerf approved 37 charter schools, but a plan for a pilot voucher program in a handful of underperforming districts has stalled in the Legislature. Most recently, the governor announced plans to extend both the school day and year. He said the Education Department would provide additional information. That was a month ago, and so far, there have been no details. That will apparently wait for the new commissioner, as will implementing Common Core standards, a set of national guidelines for what students should master in each grade.
Tests reflecting the standards are set to start this spring. In a state that has more than 600 school districts and about 2,500 schools, the education commissioner can do only so much to affect individual classrooms.
Cerf sought to improve educational achievement by giving parents more choice and by holding teachers more accountable for how their students perform. He may not have implemented all of his goals, but Cerf will depart Trenton with a solid list of accomplishments.
Star Ledger - Chris Cerf's solid record as NJ education guru: Editorial
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board NJ.com
on February 13, 2014 at 7:55 PM, updated February 14, 2014 at 10:36 PM
Gov. Chris Christie has a blind spot when it comes to the challenges faced by low-wage families in New Jersey. He peeled back the earned income tax credit, effectively raising their taxes. He has abandoned efforts to promote affordable housing, and tried to grab money that had been set aside for that purpose. Even in dispersing Hurricane Sandy aid, he has shortchanged renters and favored homeowners.
The great exception is education. Christie has moved aggressively to improve the state’s worst schools, following a blueprint that closely matches the reforms pushed by President Obama.
His point man has been Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, who is now stepping down to join a commercial venture headed by Joel Klein, the former chancellor in New York City.
Cerf has been by far the most effective member of Christie’s cabinet, and his departure is a blow. He understood that New Jersey really has two public school systems — one in the suburbs where students consistently rank among the nation’s best, and another in the poor cities with shocking rates of failure. He granted successful districts greater autonomy, while offering muscular intervention in the cities.
New Jersey owes this man a debt of gratitude. Here’s hoping his successor can do as well.
In Newark, he appointed Cami Anderson as superintendent and helped negotiate a groundbreaking contract that offers bonuses to the best teachers, while making it easier to remove poor performers. And in a national innovation, Anderson is now taking over the assignment of students to charter schools to ensure that they take their fair share of the toughest students. She is also sensibly handing over the management of several failing schools to charter operators with a record of success.
In Camden, Cerf helped recruit TEAM Academy, a charter chain with a proven record in Newark, to run several new schools. In Jersey City, he played a crucial role in removing Charles Epps, the former superintendent who was a barrier to reform.
On charter schools, Cerf has been smart and careful. He approved 37 new charter schools during his term, a pace that some felt was too slow. But by selecting only the most promising applicants, he is guarding against the failure we’ve seen in states that are less discriminating. And by closing 10 charters that were performing poorly, he was pruning dead branches so that the tree can thrive.
Tenure reform was another success, though a partial one. The new law makes it much easier to remove ineffective teachers. More important, it established an evaluation system whose main goal is not to remove teachers, but to improve their performance. Sadly, the Legislature preserved seniority protections for poor teachers during times of layoffs.
Some educators complain that Cerf was autocratic, that he didn’t seek enough input from educators. And it is a pity he won’t be here to follow through on some of these reforms, especially the teacher evaluation component, which is still in some flux.
But New Jersey owes this man a debt of gratitude. Here’s hoping his successor can do as well.
Asbury Park Press Editorial: Cerf’s Successor needs An Open Mind
Christopher Cerf’s imminent departure as the state’s education commissioner raises plenty of questions at a time when the state is in the midst of significant education reforms. Such uncertainty is to be expected when any Cabinet member jumps ship at a pivotal time. But there’s something more here, something bubbling underneath the surface that doesn’t smell quite right.
Take our poll: Does Chris Cerf's resignation leave New Jersey schools in the lurch?
Let’s start with Cerf’s new job, as CEO of Amplify Insight, an education firm self-described as providing professional services to help teachers assess student needs and determine progress. Cerf has said that he doesn’t see any ethical conflicts and that he’s not even sure if his new company already is doing business with New Jersey schools. Fact is, however, that as commissioner, Cerf has been busy propping up the controversial new “Common Core” standards for testing students and evaluating teachers that many believe are being rushed into place, at high costs and with uncertain benefits.
If school districts struggle with the implementation of the new standards, and test results plummet as a result of a mishandled transition, guess which company would be able to exploit those struggles by offering its services? Amplify Insight. A two-year ban on Cerf and Amplify doing any business with New Jersey schools should be in order with Cerf on board.
The concerns here, however, go beyond Cerf’s new gig and the potential conflicts involved. Teachers say rushing the new system into place is setting them up for failure, with insufficient time — and money — to properly adjust curricula to meet the new standards. That hurts students as well as teachers whose jobs and compensation will be increasingly tied to student performance, as gauged by standardized tests.
Across the border in New York, education officials have taken a step back and delayed full implementation of Common Core for five years after a disastrously mismanaged rollout in which test scores tanked. New Jersey should proceed with similar caution, to assure the desired reforms are done right, not just fast.
New Jersey has among the highest-achieving public schools in the nation. Education problems are primarily centered in poor urban districts where socioeconomic factors create massive challenges. Reform efforts should be focused in those areas, where different educational models might better serve those special needs.
Those are the facts, but that hasn’t been Gov. Chris Christie’s message, certainly not in the earlier days of his first gubernatorial term. Christie arrived in office bashing teachers, trashing public education in New Jersey and gutting school aid.
Cerf’s successor will undoubtedly be on board with Christie’s policies. But that person also needs to come into the job with an open mind about proper introduction of Common Core, and the broad embrace of charter schools, among other initiatives. New Jersey needs reforms that work, not those shaped to advance an anti-public education agenda.
NJ Spotlight - Opinion: Chris Cerf's Decision to Leave Education Post is New Jersey's Loss
Laura Waters | February 18, 2014
If the Garden State is truly committed to education reform, it will find another commissioner cut from the same cloth
Someone ought to give Chris Cerf a flak suit as he parachutes out of Gov. Chris Christie’s shrinking inner circle. New Jersey’s departing Commissioner of Education has a new gig at the education technology firm Amplify Insight, but warm wishes are scant.
Instead, critics are lobbing rocks at Cerf for two perceived transgressions: one, his shift to the private sector, particularly to a company with a sullied reputation in the Garden State, and two, his education agenda, which some regard as insufficiently deferential to traditional public schools.
Let’s get the first one out of the way. Last week Cerf announced his descent from the pristine tower of the Department of Education to the debased netherworld of Amplify Insight, a private company that sells data services to support student assessments.
Immediately the NJEA lobbed this blitz: “[Amplify] 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.”
Newark Teacher Union chief Joseph Del Grosso groused, “I look for commissioners who are champions of public schools, period.” Echoed another critic last week in these pages, “Cerf is . . . sliding back and forth between the private and public sector.”
In other words, say his critics, Cerf is trading on private connections and engaging in corrupt behavior by taking a job with a company partially controlled by ogre Rupert Murdoch and managed by Joel Klein, former chancellor of the NYC school system and derider-in-chief of teacher tenure rules. (See Steven Brill’s “The Rubber Room.”) Even worse, “Amplify Insight” is actually an alias for a company called “Wireless Generation,” which has a pockmarked history with New Jersey.
Chris Cerf’s new job at Amplify Insight/Wireless, then, may seem like a bridge too far for New Jerseyans who remember our adventures with Race to the Top, the Obama Administration’s federal grant program for states willing to commit to high standards, accountability, equity, and choice.
Back in 2010 then-Commissioner Lucille Davy, who served under former Gov. Jon Corzine, bypassed established bidding processes and chose Wireless to vet our Race to the Top application. The next-to-final draft included assurances from the DOE, NJEA, and local school districts that NJ would adopt the Common Core State Standards, expand school choice, adapt new assessments aligned with the Common Core, and reform tenure.
Failure often has many fathers. In this case, Wireless, aka Amplify, was one of them, responsible for a five-point loss on a trivial funding question. But the primary progenitor was Christie, who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by overturning Commissioner Bret Schundler’s entente with the NJEA over tenure reform and forcing a last-minute submission with no union buy-in.
All this history predates Chris Cerf’s term as commissioner Would critics lob those bombs if Cerf took a job, say, at Apple, another creature from the murky depths of private enterprise that supplies public schools with necessary technology?
The second item in dispute is Cerf’s legacy, or whether his voice and his work will lead to better student outcomes. To me, his signature accomplishment is shredding the pretense of equity within New Jersey’s public school system.
As recently as 2011, just as Cerf started his term, then-NJEA President Barbara Keshishian declaimed that NJ’s education success is “irrefutable” and our achievement gap “is a classic straw man” You’d be hard pressed to find someone who makes that argument today, although some still resort to the complacent canard that abolishing poverty is the only roadmap to ameliorating student achievement in poor urban school districts.
Cerf eloquently drove home the message that New Jersey has two separate and unequal school systems, one for families who can afford to live in affluent neighborhoods and another for families who can’t. We buy into school districts as if they’re yacht clubs.
Cerf’s voice in New Jersey’s education evolution, then, is clear, although we’ll have to wait for results. Certainly it seems likely that students enrolled in Camden Public Schools, taken over by the DOE last fall under Cerf’s watch, will benefit from the opportunity to choose to attend highly regarded KIPP or Mastery charter schools. Most would agree that all children, regardless of ZIP code, should have access to similarly ambitious course content. There’s consensus that teacher evaluations should be informed, to one extent or another, by student outcomes.
Historian Jonathan Alter wrote an essay in 2010 called “The State of Liberalism” in which he described the Democratic Party’s struggle (yes, Cerf is a card-carrying Democrat) to reconcile “a tactical split within liberalism itself.”
On one side are “action liberals,” or “policy-oriented pragmatists who use their heads to get something important done, even if their arid deal-making and Big Money connections often turn off the base.” On the other side are “movement liberals,” “dreamy idealists” who have great heart and imagination but “overindulge in fine whines, appear naïve about political realities, and prefer emotionally satisfying gestures to incremental but significant change.”
Alter uses education reform as an example of this tactical split within the Democratic Party: “Obama and the reformers are on one side,” he says, while on the other side are “hidebound adult interest groups (especially the National Education Association) that have until recently dominated the party.”
Cerf is an “action liberal,” pragmatic and policy-oriented, currently assaulted by “movement liberals” who fear even incremental change. We were lucky to have him. I’ll hope for a new commissioner who’s equally committed to action, undeterred by political gunfire, and devoted to New Jersey’s schoolchildren.
