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4-14-11 Star Ledger, nj.com - Christie proposes education reform bills that would eliminate current tenure system for teachers… "Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, a group of about 100 suburban districts, said Christie’s proposals will prompt "a real dialogue and conversation" about education reform in New Jersey. She said a number of "stumbling blocks" from teachers’ perspectives, including the proposed changes to teacher compensation and the evaluation process based on assessment. "The details in the legislation are going to be dramatically important," Strickland said. "That’s why it’s clear this is going to be hashed out. It should be, because this is significant change."
Njspotlight.com - Gov. Christie Offers First Peek at Education Reform Bills
Star Ledger, nj.com - Christie proposes education reform bills that would eliminate current tenure system for teachers
Published: Thursday, April 14, 2011, 7:30 AM Updated: Thursday, April 14, 2011, 11:48 AM
By Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie sent a package of education reform bills to the Legislature Wednesday that would eliminate tenure as teachers know it and offer job protection only to those who consistently show a high level of performance based on new statewide evaluation system.
Under the tenure proposal, teachers would be given one of four ratings — highly effective, effective, partially effective or ineffective — based equally on student performance and classroom observations. Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf first unveiled the evaluation system during an address at Princeton University in February.
Teachers who receive the two highest ratings three years in a row would be eligible for tenure and merit pay, at their district’s discretion. Educators rated partially effective for two consecutive years or ineffective for one year — even if they have previously been highly rated — would lose tenure and could be fired.
"We want tenure to become something good teachers earn," said Christie, who has been advocating education reform for months. "It will not protect bad teachers who stay in front of the classroom.
"What we want is the most effective teachers at the front of every classroom regardless of seniority. Teachers who are effective are not worried about losing their jobs."
Under the current system, most teachers receive tenure after three years and one day on the job. The state has revoked tenure from just 17 teachers over the past 10 years. The process can drag out for years and be very costly to districts.
The tenure proposal is one of seven education reform bills Christie said he hopes will move through the Democrat-controlled Legislature quickly and be implemented by the 2012-13 school year.
Other proposals include:
• Ending the practice known as "last in, first out," which requires districts to lay off less experienced teachers first.
• Promoting what’s known as "mutual consent," which requires principals and teachers to agree on teachers’ assignments to schools.
• Offering bonuses to teachers who work in high needs districts and difficult to staff subject areas like math or science.
• Placing a 30-day deadline on tenure revocation decisions.
• Allowing school districts to opt out of the civil service system.
None of the bills has a sponsor, leaving some legislators questioning the likelihood they will move forward at all.
Tom Hester Jr., a spokesman for the Assembly Democrats, said the caucus would review the bills and may introduce competing legislation.
Assembly Education Committee Chairman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex) said he does not support any of the measures, as proposed, and would likely vote against them if they came before his committee.
"Everyone in education agrees that there are no reliable evaluation tools to accomplish what the governor continues to say should be the standard for hiring and retaining teachers," Diegnan said. "Test scores have been tried across the country and consistently produce unreliable results."
Steve Wollmer, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, said an evaluation system might drive performance in the corporate world, but won’t in the state’s public schools.
"You should not use standardized test scores to make high stakes personnel decisions," said Wollmer, whose union has consistently battled the governor over education reform. "There are too many factors that affect student test scores that teachers cannot control."
Adam Bauer, a spokesman for the Senate Republicans, said it is "highly likely" the bills will garner support — and sponsors — from the Republican caucus, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union), who supports the governor’s education reform agenda.
"(Sen. Kean) looks forward to continuing to work with the administration on their shared commitment to saving kids from failing schools and measuring educational success based on outcomes," Bauer said.
Kean could not be reached for comment.
Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, a group of about 100 suburban districts, said Christie’s proposals will prompt "a real dialogue and conversation" about education reform in New Jersey.
She said a number of "stumbling blocks" from teachers’ perspectives, including the proposed changes to teacher compensation and the evaluation process based on assessment.
"The details in the legislation are going to be dramatically important," Strickland said. "That’s why it’s clear this is going to be hashed out. It should be, because this is significant change."
Staff Writer Jeanette Rundquist contributed to this report.
Njspotlight.com - Gov. Christie Offers First Peek at Education Reform Bills
Seven draft bills tough on tenure, and even tougher on salary schedules and seniority
, April 14 in Education |1 Comment
Gov. Chris Christie yesterday released the details of seven draft bills sent to the legislature that he said will reform how teachers are evaluated and granted tenure in New Jersey.
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Much as advertised, some of it is new, including some tougher-than-expected language on tenure.
Still, in a state where education policy has become almost blood sport -- and with a legislative election looming -- all of the governor's plan is sure to be hotly debated in the months and maybe years ahead.
"This [plan] is very difficult to do under the best of circumstances," said Patrick McGuinn, a Drew University professor of political science who follows education policy nationwide.
"Given the situation in New Jersey in the last couple of years -- even just the last couple of weeks -- it’s only going to be more difficult," he said.
Still, the details of Christie’s plan -- which was first introduced in a town hall six months ago -- are notable, some announced yesterday, others tucked into the bills his office released at 8 o’clock last night, and still others in policies yet to be unveiled.
The Tenure Tenets
Long advertised were the central tenets of Christie’s proposals, which would give teachers tenure only after three years of favorable evaluations, and take it away after one year in which he or she is found "ineffective," the lowest of four grades.
Currently, teachers gain tenure after their first three years, and then gain lifelong protections that make their removal for poor performance a rarity.
"Let me be clear," Christie said in a press conference in his outer office yesterday. "We don’t want to see the elimination of tenure, but the elimination the tenure system we have now."
Still, some is tougher than expected. Although hinted at before, the provision for removing a teacher after one bad review is a change from the Colorado evaluation system that has been a major influence in the development of this plan. In Colorado, where the system is going before the state board for adoption next week, it’s two years of the lowest grade that costs a teacher his or her tenure.
Also long discussed is Christie’s plan for basing those decisions on a new teacher evaluation system, in which half the grade is based on student achievement and test scores, and the other half based on more subjective measures and teacher observations.
Christie yesterday called for that evaluation system to be in effect by the 2012-2013 school year, the time it will take to put in place a data system linking teachers with their individual student's performance on standardized tests.
But how that linkage works has been a controversial topic. Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf said he would recommend what is called a "student growth percentile model," a system developed by a small think-tank based in New Hampshire, which is being used in one form or another in 15 states, including Colorado, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
It’s not easy to explain, but in short, students are measured on their achievement growth on a standardized test from one year to the next against other students of comparable academic level. Massachusetts provides a good primer for how it works.
The Center for Assessment, based in Dover, N.H., has developed the model, and according to its vice president is close to a contract with New Jersey for designing the system here. It would work with the Public Consulting Group, the consultant already developing the state’s student database, NJ SMART.
Scott Marion, the center’s vice president, in an interview yesterday stressed both the advantages and the limits of the model. He indicated it is only part of the overall evaluation, and only for those teachers whose students take standardized tests.
"It is a good model for contributing information to be part of a evaluation," he said in an interview yesterday. "That is an important distinction."
Still, he said the system provides a fair and accurate way to determine the very highest-performing teachers and the very lowest. "All the models struggle with the middle," he said.
Marion did caution about relying too much on the results for any single year, saying that it works best in measuring a teacher over multiple years. Marion said teachers can have more difficult students in a given year that can skew the scores.
"That’s why we encourage multiple years," he said. "If consistently low, then you can ask the questions about what’s wrong with that teacher. But if the scores are bouncing up and down, it could be how a teacher deals with a certain set of kids."
All this is new science, he acknowledged, and why he advised taking one’s time. He said the New Jersey’s system could be in place in a year, as Christie said, but states like Colorado that are even further along also plan to test it on a pilot basis for two additional years.
"You can design it in a year, but in any case, you want to pilot it so people can get used to it and get the kinks out," Marion said.
How that system rolls out is only part of the debate waiting for New Jersey, though.
Salary Schedules
Also notable yesterday was a new proposal that would essentially do away with contract salary schedules for teachers, a system in place for decades, in which teacher pay is based on years of service and advanced educational degrees.
Instead, Christie’s plan, as detailed in the draft bill released last night, would base pay and increases predominantly on teachers’ merit as determined in the evaluations and other factors unrelated to seniority or academic attainment. Those would include whether teachers work in hard-to-fill positions like science or math or in high-poverty districts.
The details of this new compensation system are still to be left to Cerf to determine, according to the bill, but remaking salary guides appears to be a bold swipe at collective bargaining as it now stands in New Jersey.
"There are two very different ways of doing merit pay in this country," said McGuinn, the Drew professor. "One is staying with the existing lockstep guide and sprinkling new money on top as bonuses. The other is more radical and really blows the whole thing up."
Other specifics in the draft bills provided their own political land mines and questions.
One would do away with seniority in determining layoffs, a contentious issue with teacher unions that maintain school districts will be prone to firing more experienced and expensive teachers.
Another would eliminate civil service protections, something that Christie maintained was redundant with the extent of school employees who are unionized.
No School, No Tenure
A new bill not discussed before would eliminate a provision in state law that protects the tenure of teachers in schools that are closed. That could prove a hot topic in Newark, for example, where efforts are underway in the state-run district to close and consolidate some under-enrolled schools, now potentially putting those teachers jobs at risk as well.
Christie also seeks to further streamline the due process procedures for teachers facing tenure charges, setting new guidelines for cases to be decided within 30 days and for such teachers to no longer be paid after 120 days.
Given the scope of the announcement, the reaction at the Statehouse and by its key players yesterday was largely muted.
The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) was predictably opposed to the bulk of the proposals, especially the reliance on test scores in evaluating teachers. Still, it also called for a "full public airing," a more conciliatory stance than usual.
The legislature’s Democratic leadership was virtually silent, with state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), chairman of the Senate’s education committee, the only one issuing a press release, which largely said she looked forward to reviewing the proposals.
Yet as the Democrats’ point person on education policy in the Senate, Ruiz retains a pivotal role, and she made clear that for all its fanfare, Christie’s proposal is not the only one under consideration.
Ruiz has been drafting her own tenure reform bill for several months, and while she said it had some common elements with the governor’s, she would proceed with her own bill as well.
Press Release 4-13-11: Governor Chris Christie Puts Forward Fundamental Education Reform Legislative Package that Puts Children First and Protects Teachers
Reforms Will Remake Tenure to Demand Accountability and Reward Good Teachers
For Immediate Release Contact: Michael Drewniak Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Trenton, NJ – Governor Christie today proposed and sent to the legislature a package of bills that gets at the root of the problems in New Jersey’s public education system by reforming the tenure system to demand results for New Jersey’s children in the classroom and reward the best and brightest teachers. Governor Christie’s proposals tackle public education's engrained problems from the top-down by reforming a system that continues to fail tens of thousands of children every year, despite consistently high levels of education spending. The Governor’s reforms brings to an end a system that lacks accountability and implements a multiple measured evaluation system that will help differentiate effective teachers from ineffective ones.
“For too long, we have failed to adequately and honestly judge the performance of New Jersey’s teachers based on the only outcome that actually matters – how well our children are learning. Even as education spending has risen dramatically, too many students in too many schools and districts continue to be failed by the system,” said Governor Christie. “If we are going to bring greater accountability to public education and turn around the 200 perpetually failing schools where 100,000 of New Jersey's children are trapped, then we must be unafraid to challenge the broken and antiquated status quo and stand up to support the very best teachers our state has to offer. These reforms will reward great teachers through better pay and career paths, allow us to identify the struggling teachers and get them the help they need, and put in place a multiple measured evaluation system that will provide an avenue to remove the bad teachers who are not getting results in the classroom.”
The series of bills encompass the Governor’s proposals to establish a statewide evaluations system for teachers and principals, fundamentally reform the state’s tenure system, provide merit pay to New Jersey’s best teachers, and protect good teachers by ending “last in, first out” laws and the practice of forced placement. In introducing the bills, the Governor called for the legislature to take immediate action on the package to finally make the long-overdue transformation of public education a reality for New Jersey families.
“The most important education reform we can make, and the best way we can benefit children, is to make sure a talented, effective teacher is at the head of the classroom. Most teachers are doing an excellent job, and we need to honor, respect and support our best teachers,” said Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf. “But without the ability to really evaluate teachers, so that good teachers can be rewarded and ineffective teachers can be removed from the classroom, we will be stuck traveling the same path that is failing too many children. Now is the time to enact these needed reforms in order to ensure the best teachers are educating New Jersey’s children.”
Specifically, the group of seven bills submitted to the legislature by Governor Christie calls for:
· Implementation of a multiple measured statewide evaluation system by the 2012-2013 school year that requires observation and evaluation of all educators at least twice per year with summative evaluation at the end of the school year using the rating categories of highly effective, effective, partially effective, or ineffective.
· Tenure attainment with recommendations for tenure eligibility only after four years of service and after ratings of “effective” or “highly effective” have been received for the proceeding three years with guidelines for lesser ratings. Tenure status is lost after an evaluation as ineffective for one year or partially effective for two years.
· Reforming laws governing reductions in force (“Last In, First Out”) so that any layoffs are based on effectiveness -- not seniority -- and determined by an evaluation system established by the Commissioner of Education.
· Mutual consent that calls for agreement by both the principal and teacher on all teacher assignments to schools. Where a principal does not consent to a tenured teacher's placement in his or her school, that teacher will continue to receive compensation for 12 months while searching for an assignment in the district, after which he or she will be placed on unpaid leave.
· Reforming teacher compensation to focus on an educator’s demonstrated effectiveness in advancing student learning, as well as whether the educator is teaching in a failing school or is teaching in a subject area that has been identified as a difficult-to-staff subject area.
· Due process changes to eliminate a provision requiring a teacher against whom tenure charges were filed to begin receiving full salary and benefits after 120 days of start of the process as well as implementing a firm deadline requiring Administrative Law Judges hearing tenure revocation cases to render a decision within 30 days.
· Allow for school districts to opt out of the Civil Service System.
The Christie Education Reform Agenda: Putting New Jersey’s Children First
Demanding and Rewarding the Most Effective Educators for our Children
Demanding and Rewarding the Most Effective Education Force in New Jersey
Governor Chris Christie has outlined a package of education reforms designed to challenge the status quo by finally prioritizing the needs of New Jersey’s children above all else. The Christie Education Reform Agenda is a series of proposals that demands the most effective education workforce, creates career ready graduates by imposing higher standards, and provides room for innovation and human connections in teaching. While each element of the Governor’s reform plan is critically important to ensure failure no longer runs rampant in too many public schools across New Jersey, the largest piece focuses on developing, evaluating and rewarding New Jersey’s teachers. Teachers are vital to the success of every child and deserve a system that gives them the ability and the environment with which to do their best job.
Governor Christie’s proposals tackle the system from the top-down to reform a system that has been failing too many of our children for too long.
Dramatically Reforming the Tenure System to Ensure Fairness and Effectiveness. Research tells us -- and everyone agrees -- that the effectiveness of the teacher in the classroom is the most important in-school variable in determining how well children learn. As with any organization looking to maximize success, it is critical to recruit the very best, ensure they are performing effectively with the right training and support, evaluate performance, and retain and reward those who are succeeding, while making tough decisions regarding the few who are not. The Governor’s tenure reform plan eliminates the tenure system in its current form in order to ensure fairness and effectiveness, while focusing on children’s success in the classroom. Teachers are the most important part of the public school equation, which is why replacing and reforming failed, antiquated tenure rules will serve to support and reward teachers.
· Multiple Measures Approach to Teacher Evaluations. Teaching is a complicated profession and determining the effectiveness of any teacher can be a challenge. For this reason, the Christie proposal embraces the multiple measures approach so that no teacher is assessed based on a single test score. Fifty percent of a teacher’s evaluation would be based on evidence of growth in student achievement, while the other half would be base on measures of teacher practice – proven indicators of student success in the classroom. Additionally, the Christie proposal would require that all teachers be evaluated annually and that the evaluation systems have four categories ranging from highly effective to ineffective.
o Measures of Student Achievement Recognizing the Importance and Limitations of Test Scores. Fifty percent of a teacher’s overall evaluation should be based on direct measures of student achievement as demonstrated by assessments and other evaluations of student work. This would be compromised of two required components and one optional component. The largest required component would be an individual teacher’s contribution to his or her students’ progress on a statewide assessment. However, the other required component would take into consideration other factors that impact a student’s growth, including school-wide performance and specific student circumstances. Additionally, districts would be permitted to choose one or more optional measures of student achievement from a list of state-approved measures. Such measures might include student performance on nationally-normed assessments or State-mandated end-of-course tests.
o Measures of Teacher Practice Based on Clear Standards and Classroom Observations. The measures of teacher practice will be based on clear performance standards that define effective teaching to help measure educational practice and improvement. Additionally, evaluations will also be based on teacher observations to ensure that the innovation and creativity a teacher employs in the classroom is considered.
o Opportunity to Improve and Receive Training. Struggling teachers would be provided meaningful opportunity to improve before receiving an ineffective rating. Similarly, the proposal would require that districts take action to ensure that teachers understand the new evaluation system and that administrators receive the training needed to ensure effective implementation. Key parameters would be mandatory and the framework would be excluded from the scope of collective bargaining so the process cannot be weakened over time.
· Achieving and Losing Tenure Based on Performance. How and whether a teacher keeps the protections of tenure depends on whether the teacher is effective in advancing student learning. Tenure will no longer be granted simply as a result of the passage of time, but on the basis of what should matter – whether students are learning.
o Using the multiple measures approach to teacher evaluations, if a teacher is rated effective or highly effective for three consecutive years, he/she will be awarded tenure - whether at the end of the fourth year or the 14th.
o If a teacher is rated ineffective for one year or partially effective for two consecutive years, he/she will revert to non-tenured status. This does not mean the teacher in question will necessarily lose his or her job, but simply that he/she no longer would enjoy the protections afforded by tenure.
· Protecting Good Teachers By Replacing the Last In, First Out Rule. Under current law, districts are required to lay off the most junior educators to protect those with seniority. These decisions are made with absolutely no consideration given to effectiveness which means a superior third-year teacher must be dismissed before a highly ineffective 10th year teacher. This is bad for New Jersey’s children, bad for parents and bad for the teaching profession. The Christie proposal would fix this flaw by providing that these decisions be made on the basis of demonstrated effectiveness, not seniority.
· Ending Forced Placement of Teachers. Under this practice, teachers are assigned to a school whether or not the principal wants them to join the faculty – and often whether or not the teacher believes it is a good fit for him or her. Districts often force teachers into another school regardless of whether there is a need or a good match. The Christie proposal would end this practice so that no teacher would be assigned to a school in the absence of mutual consent. If a teacher loses his or her job because the position is eliminated, her school is closed, or her program is phased out, she will retain employment rights and her district will assist in securing the teacher a position in another school. If that teacher is unable to find a district teaching position on the basis of mutual consent within a year, she will be put on unpaid leave.
Reforming the Compensation System to Reward Qualified and Effective Teachers. New Jersey needs to attract and retain effective teachers, especially in New Jersey’s most challenging schools and districts. Yet, today, teacher compensation is determined by years of service or degree and credit accumulation, neither of which accurately measures a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom. Further, many current collective bargaining contracts stand in the way of efforts to reward teachers who are getting results for students or working in challenging environments. Governor Christie’s proposal turns the current system inside-out and finally puts effective, quality teaching ahead of seniority and lackluster results:
· Requiring salary schedules or compensation policies to be based primarily on effectiveness rather than seniority;
· Prohibiting the use of graduate degree accumulation as a basis, in and of itself, for salary increases, except in areas where graduate degrees have proven to be effective markers of improved teacher performance such as math and science;
· Granting schools and districts the flexibility to reward excellence in the classroom and to attract high-quality teachers to low-performing schools or hard-to-fill positions.
Expanding Opportunities for Great Teachers to Succeed. Governor Christie’s proposal recognizes that teachers need to be given development opportunities that drive success in the classroom. Presently, the primary way for a teacher to achieve higher compensation outside of the seniority-based salary guide is to receive graduate credits or to follow a lengthy, cumbersome path to becoming a principal or administrator. Teachers who are innovating and getting results, but wish to stay in the classroom, are given few opportunities to advance professionally.
· Establishing New Credentials and Career Ladders. With the designations of “Master Teacher” and “Master Principal,” these new credentials will provide the opportunity for highly effective teachers to utilize their skills and experience in a variety of additional ways, including mentoring, professional development of peers, or founding a charter school.
· Expanding Opportunities to Receive Updated Certification. This plan will increase the number of alternate route programs for principals and update certification requirements to align with the attainment of skills needed to be an effective leader.
· Ensuring Our Children Have Well-Prepared Teachers. Teacher preparation remains a national problem, but is especially serious in New Jersey’s teacher preparation programs. A 2009 study by the well-respected National Council on Teacher Quality gave New Jersey a grade of D for teacher preparation. Elementary teachers who do not possess a minimum knowledge of the subject matter continue to receive teaching certificates. Mandating that K-5 and PreK-3 grade teacher preparation programs administer tests in the science of reading and math knowledge, in addition to a general competency test, as a requirement for teacher certification.
Governor Christie has declared 2011 the year of education reform and introduced far-reaching education reform agenda to bring quality education to every New Jersey child. This includes increased funding for every New Jersey school district by $250 million in the FY 2012 budget, approval of more charter schools to expand school choice options and increasing funding for charter schools by $4.6 million.
In January, Governor Christie delivered to the Legislature a specific legislative proposal to enact significant changes to strengthen and improve New Jersey’s charter school law. These changes include: Improving authorizing and application process, encouraging charter school applicants, and providing flexibility with charter school operations and administration.
