Politics & Government
New Performance Standards in Place for Teachers to Meet Tenure
Teachers in New Jersey can now lose tenure for having two bad years in a row.
The acting education commissioner unveiled a plan this 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 years 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 kick in when a teacher starts his or her fourth year with a school district.
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 completely based on student learning, including test scores and other measurements.
Progress would be measured primarily on how much growth is seen in learning, regardless of the starting point.
The methodology of effective teaching is something to be awarded. Merely withstanding the test of time, or in New Jersey’s tenured teachers’ cases, three years and one day, shouldn’t necessarily guarantee you lifetime job security, he said.
Cerf said the proposed legislation “does everything in its 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 bipartisan issue.
“Are we politically too timid to give our children the best chance in life through an effective public school education?” he asked.
