Tenure On Reform Agenda

“Reforms may end teacher tenure in N.J.”
by Jason Method
Asbury Park Press
January 2, 2012

If Gov. Chris Christie and other education reform advocates get their way — as they expect — New Jersey will end teacher tenure as permanent job security, require more of high school students so they can get a job or go to college, and come up with new ways to judge and track students and teachers.

In addition, there could be more charter schools or private-public schools in urban areas, and many school districts could see an end to annual budget votes.

Various administrative and legislative officials confirm that much of that agenda could become law in the first half of 2012.

State Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz, a Democrat from Essex County who heads the Senate Education Committee, believes that the political conversation has changed and there is growing momentum for an assortment of reform measures.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from, as a union rep, from the principal’s association or a teacher, we’re all talking about what needs to get done to ensure we have great student outcomes,” Ruiz said in an interview.

Christie has long said education reform is one of the “big things” his administration has set out to do, and he had declared 2011 as the Year of Education Reform.

In January, Christie hosted a screening of the movie, “Waiting for Superman,” which depicts parents and their children desperate to win a spot in a charter school.

Then in April, Christie gave an address about education to the Brookings Institution, a prominent Washington, D.C., think tank, which was attended by national experts.

He met with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Drumthwacket, the governor’s official residence.

Yet, Christie has not passed a signature piece of education legislation so far. But the Republican governor contends he is nonetheless making progress with the Democratic-controlled Legislature and results will be there in 2012.

“There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes, a lot of conversations that have been going on,” Christie told one of his town hall meetings in Teaneck this month.

“We’re working on it. We’ll get there,” he added.

The question is when and what will it look like when it’s done.

Progress report

A proposed teacher tenure reform remains in legislative negotiations, six months after the bill was initially set to pass. A much-lobbied-for school voucher bill appears stymied, and charter school and other measures are still pending

But the Christie administration has moved on other fronts:

&#; The state is testing ways to measure teacher effectiveness in 11 school districts. Officials hope to roll out a new faculty evaluation system statewide next September for full testing.

&#; The state is setting new standards for high school graduates, called college and career readiness standards. That effort may ultimately result in a tougher high school proficiency test required for students to earn their diploma. That initiative has long been eyed by state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf.

&#; The state is building out its data system that will help it track test scores in other data in each of the 2,452 schools in the state. Meanwhile, Cerf has reorganized his department and New Jersey is in the process of rewriting general rules to streamline education.

Michael A. Vrancik, a lobbyist for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said he thinks the work done this year will soon yield major changes.

“You’ve got a commissioner who is radically reforming the Department of Education and is setting the stage for these later reforms,” Vrancik said. “You see some shoots in the ground, and you think nothing’s going on, but there’s a lot happening underneath the surface.”

There is some important legislation that is expected to move soon:

&#; A bill that would allow for public-private partnerships and more charter schools in large urban school districts may soon be on the fast track. It is sponsored by state Sen. Donald Norcross, D-Camden, brother of South Jersey Democratic boss George E. Norcross III.

The bill will provide for expanded alternative education in five school districts — not identified by name in the legislation — which have more than 10,000 students and have the most failing schools. The bill would allow the school district, parents or teachers to petition the state to convert to charter schools. The bill would also let districts create upto two new schools as public-private partnerships.

&#; Another bill, ready for a vote in the Senate and the Assembly, would provide communities options to move school board elections to November and eliminate budget votes for any districts that keep within the state property tax cap. It would end more than a century of voting tradition in the Garden State.

Teacher evaluations

But Christie’s main target, tenure reform for the state’s 94,329 teachers, remains a work in progress.

Even if it were to pass in the next few months, school districts still need a way to evaluate teachers so they can then use that to determine whether a teacher should receive, or lose, the coveted job guarantees.

Christie has proposed ending teacher tenure as a lifetime guarantee. Instead, he wants to replace the system with one whereby tenure is granted and kept only when staff passes teaching evaluations.

Christie, at his Teaneck event, praised Ruiz for taking a “laboring role” in negotiating with the various interest groups.

Ruiz said in an interview she continues to hold meetings with the teachers unions and others about how best to reform tenure rules so that good teachers are protected and ineffective teachers are dealt with.

“This is a huge topic,” Ruiz said. “It was important to me to engage every single person in the conversation and have a thoughtful process before we revolutionize the way we’ve been practicing what we do in New Jersey.”

Charter school expansion, however, remains a key point of contention, as parents remain concerned that money taken from local school districts to pay for new charter schools will hurt local schools. Ruiz said she would favor a bill that would give communities a say on whether new charter schools are approved.

But perhaps biggest change that will affect education in 2012 is the apparent détente between the state’s largest teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association, and the state’s top power structure.

Christie and Cerf have become a bad cop, good cop duo in dealing with the NJEA. For now, Christie has stopped issuing political fusillades against the union during press conferences, while Cerf has been talking with NJEA leaders about policy changes.

The NJEA has also reversed course and met to talk with George Norcross. Last spring, the NJEA launched a series of ads against Norcross, and he responded by holding a news conference to blast the union. “To some degree, the NJEA has seen the light,’’ said Lynne Strickland, who represents suburban school districts as executive director of the New Jersey Coalition of Schools. “To move forward with their own positions, they recognize they need to be at the table.”

Strickland said teachers and parents are still waiting to see what all the changes will eventually mean.

“The effort is pitched toward school districts that are having performance issues,” Strickland said. “Those schools that are performing well, parents and educators want them to be continue to do well, and they’re worried they’re going to be held back by a one-size fits all approach.”