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发帖数: 901 | 1 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday called for public school teachers
to be evaluated based equally on their classroom performance and student
achievement and accused the state's largest teachers union of being a group
of "bullies and thugs."
Christie laid out his proposal in a speech in New York sponsored by the
Brookings Institute, a Washington think tank. A teachers union spokesman
called the governor's plan an "educational disaster."
Since taking office last year, the Republican Christie has emerged as a
popular figure among conservatives nationally for his willingness to
confront public employee unions, including teachers, over their salaries and
pensions. Several other governors have since followed suit, saying such
benefits for public employees are unsustainable over time.
Christie kept up the anti-union drumbeat Thursday, referring to the New
Jersey Education Association as a bunch of "bullies and thugs" who pressured
the Democrat-controlled Legislature to resist reform. "I don't know how
they sleep at night," he said of the union.
Christie spoke broadly about the need to reform public education, saying
seniority-based tenure should be abolished and that good teachers should be
paid more than bad teachers.
He laid out new details of his plan for teacher evaluations, basing them
equally on student achievement and teacher performance in the classroom.
Every school district should design and implement its evaluation plan based
on that framework, Christie said, with teachers and principals taking charge
of drafting the plan and measuring one another's performance.
Christie said he had bypassed the union to meet privately with groups of
teachers to seek input for his plan.
"I want to hear directly from teachers and want them to hear directly from
me. There's not one teacher who doesn't understand we need to reform this
system," Christie said.
He acknowledged the limitations of test scores on evaluations and said
teachers had to be measured somewhat differently based on their subject
areas.
"How do you test a music teacher? How do you test the art teacher? And don't
you test the special ed teacher a little differently?" he said.
A teacher rated effective or highly effective for three consecutive years
would receive tenure, Christie said. Teachers would lose tenure after two
consecutive years of ineffective ratings. Christie's proposal also makes it
quicker to get rid of underperforming teachers — cases would be resolved in
30 days.
NJEA spokesman Steve Baker called Christie's proposal "an educational
disaster" for students.
"It would require a massive expansion of standardized testing in every grade
level and every subject," Baker said.
Christie bolstered his case using oft-recited numbers, saying 104,000
children in New Jersey are trapped in 200 chronically failing schools. He
says education spending has increased 343 percent since 1985 with aid to the
state's 31 neediest districts nearly doubling as a percentage of the state
budget. Yet, the gap in eighth-grade math between at-risk and not at-risk
students hasn't changed significantly in 19 years.
Christie's appearance in New York was the latest in a string of national
appearances, including interviews with network news anchors and a speech at
the American Enterprise Institute in Washington in February.
He has been pressing for education reform throughout his tenure but has seen
pushback from the union and many lawmakers. Many of the reforms he's
proposing he would require legislative approval.
Christie has managed to rein in school superintendent salaries by changing
the pay scale so only the heads of the biggest districts are paid more than
the governor, who makes $175,000 a year. But, a bill establishing a pilot
school voucher program paid for by businesses is stalled for now in the
Assembly and Senate.
The administration is embroiled in a lawsuit over education cuts that
Christie made in last year's budget. The Newark-based Education Law Center
sued after Christie slashed state aid to education by about $1 billion last
year. The current budget proposal restores $250 million in public education
aid. The case is pending before the state Supreme Court. |
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