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Schools

Christie's Education Chief Plans Tenure Tweaking

Changes to tenure tied to student performance is quickly attacked by teacher's union.

New Jersey's acting education commissioner unveiled a plan Wednesday afternoon that would revamp tenure for teachers, requiring them to meet a set of performance standards.

In a speech at the Lewis Library at Princeton University, Christopher Cerf called for “demonstrated student learning” to be part of the tenure process, along with yearly evaluations and a plan to strip tenure from teachers who are not meeting requirements.

Under the proposal, teachers rated effective or highly effective for three consecutive years would be granted tenure. Teachers would lose tenure if they failed to meet requirements for two consecutive years.

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Tenure is a set of legal protections that can be offered to teachers after three years and one day of service, guaranteeing educators a fourth year in their district but essentially offering them due process protections going forward. Under the current system, once a teacher achieves tenure, a district can't simply dismiss an educator like an "at-will" employee; tenure charges must be established, leading to an often costly and time-consuming process. 

The proposal is expected to go the state Legislature in March.

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“The effectiveness of the teacher in front of the class is the best way to determine how children learn,” Cerf said. “This alone is more important than the class size, or books we choose.”

Step one toward changing the system would be implementing evaluations, which would include yearly updates that are based on measures of student learning, including test scores.

Progress would be measured primarily on how much growth is seen in learning, regardless of the starting point, Cerf said.

The methodology of effective teaching is something to be awarded, he said. Merely withstanding the test of time—in New Jersey’s tenured teachers’ cases, three years and one day—shouldn’t necessarily guarantee lifetime job security, he said.

Cerf said the proposed legislation “does everything in it’s power to retain those achieving success and get rid of those who aren’t,” and that the proposed legislation is not “trying to bash teachers for our education’s failure.”

Instead, Cerf said that the proposal is very “pro-teacher,” and that excellence in the classroom should be emphasized.

The proposal also calls for an end to seniority in layoff decisions. Under current law, districts making staff cuts are required to lay off the most junior educators.

“Our proposal would be to fix this, and these decisions would be made on demonstrated effectiveness,” Cerf said.

Compensation also could be affected, he said, with raises being tied to student learning.

He said re-evaluating how teachers achieve tenure should be a bi-partisan issue.

“Are we politically too timid to give our children the best chance in life through an effective public school education?” he asked.

The proposal is part of Gov. Chris Christie's overall plan to overhaul education in New Jersey. The Republican governor has also moved to cap school administrator salaries (generally at a rate no higher than his own salary); to open more charter schools, which he heralds as a far better method for fixing failing schools than increasing their funding; and to increase school choice.

Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver, in a statement released following Cerf's announcement, said she's skeptical of the Christie administration's plans. Oliver, a Democrat, said legislators will review the plan, but "will do so knowing that solving the problems facing our poorest children in failing in urban schools is more complicated than throwing around slogans and blaming teacher job protections."

She criticized the Christie administration for cuts to programs affecting New Jersey's urban and poor students.

“The Assembly is prepared to work cooperatively to advance responsible education reforms, but is not ready to cast blame on teachers who in many of these failing schools are quite simply real-life heroes,” she said.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) released a statement shortly after Cerf’s speech endorsing the plan. Kean, an education committee member and close Christie ally, said that the plan should not provide fear towards teachers who are performing well and will help promote the performance of teachers statewide.

"Current tenure protections provide no incentives for excellence in the classroom and no consequences for failure," said Kean. "A system of career promotion based solely on seniority and length of service serves neither the interests of teachers who care about their jobs nor the students who are entitled to a thorough and efficient education. Governor Christie's proposed tenure reforms are pro-teacher, pro-student, and bring the focus of education policy in New Jersey where it truly belongs- educational outcomes for our children."

Response From the Teachers Union

Barbara Keshishian—president of the New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers union—released a statement saying that "if the governor’s goal is to cultivate anxiety in the heart of every parent and every teacher in New Jersey, he has done that today. "

"He just doesn’t understand teaching, the tenure process, or what constitutes a sound evaluation process," she said in the statement.

Keshishian called the proposal an "unproven step in the wrong direction" and said evaluating teachers based on test scores is bad policy. She said too much of what impacts student performance occurs outside of the classroom. She also said connecting merit pay to student test scores will destroy morale and the spirit of collaboration seen in the best schools.

"Parents should be alarmed and dismayed at this proposal," she said. "Why will teachers want to work with the most challenging students, whose test scores are the hardest to raise?"

Keshishian criticized the proposal for eliminating the current processes for dismissing teachers. The NJEA has separately proposed teacher dismissals be handled through arbitration hearings, rather than through courts—which it says would save taxpayer money while still ensuring fairness in dismissals. It points to a system it says has worked successfully in Massachusetts for 18 years. The NJEA has also put forward its own plans for tenure reforms.

“No one wants to create 125,000 new patronage jobs in New Jersey, but that’s the risk we run under the governor’s proposal," she said. "What makes him think teachers will do their best work in a climate of fear and uncertainty?"

Local Reaction

The news was still being digested by local Boards of Education in Union County in the hours after Cerf made the announcement. The responses from those willing to comment showed a range of reactions to the plan.

Westfield BOE member Mitch Slater said that while he has not reviewed Cerf’s entire proposal he believes the acting commissioner’s tenure proposals are in line with his own beliefs. During his BOE race last year, Slater called for ending teacher tenure, a move that has placed him at odds with his local teachers’ union.

“I think tenure needs to be reevaluated,” said Slater, who stressed he was not speaking for the entire Westfield board. “Any moves that are made are a good start.”

Scotch Plains-Fanwood BOE President Trip Whitehouse said that he has concerns about making student achievement a part of the decision making process for teacher pay and tenure. He said that a group of students in a particular class may not test well, regardless of the teacher’s performance. Whitehouse said he would prefer keeping the existing measure of utilizing performance reviews from administrators encompassing the teacher’s entire record.

Unlike Slater, Whitehouse said he supports keeping tenure in place, noting that it prevents teachers from being hurt by backlash from a small group of parents based on the teacher’s grading of students in a particular year.

Whitehouse did question Cerf’s proposal regarding merit pay for teachers and ending the use of seniority to decide which teachers stay in the system. He said he has not seen any studies that show a relationship between merit pay and student performance and said the seniority rules are more important in a time of fiscal difficulties. Whitehouse said that while many of the newer teachers are talented, his concern with ending the seniority rule would be potentially allowing school boards to use teacher salaries to decide which teachers would be laid off due to budget cuts.

Whitehouse said that he wanted Cerf and Christie to understand one aspect to tenure reform.

“The perception from the governor’s office is that once three years and one day comes there are many teachers who use the blanket of tenure to stop all the good things they are doing, I don’t believe that is true,” he said. 

While agreeing with Slater in the need for tenure reform, Cranford BOE Vice President Mary Catherine Sudiak said that she wants to know what factors Cerf plans to use to determine student acheivement. She said that while test scores would be the first place to look, not all subject areas have state mandated tests.

"I truly think that there are a lot of factors that contribute to student success," she said. "It is not unreasonable to look at test scores, but they are not the entire answer."

Sudiak said she did not want to comment on the other factors that could be used for measuring student achievement, saying that she wants to study the issue more. Sudiak cited a comment from former state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy to the Cranford BOE during a 2009 meeting, where Davy said standardized tests measure student performance on one day in time.

"The devil is in the details and I don't have the details," Sudiak said of Cerf's proposal.

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