Education reform is center stage in NJ politics. The talk on all sides is how to reform the tenure system to ensure that effective teachers are rewarded while teachers unable to meet certain standards do not enjoy lifetime job protection.
Tenure was created to protect teachers from being fired due to race, gender, political beliefs or external pressures from various advocacy groups, financial donors, parents or changing school administrators. Here in NJ, state law establishes tenure. The legislature retains the power to modify how it is granted or eliminate it altogether.
Once tenure is achieved – usually by working at a school for three years and one day – the only way a NJ public school teacher can be dismissed is if accusations of inefficiency, incapacity, unbecoming conduct or “other just causes” are investigated and proved true – usually before an administrative law judge. Schools may also eliminate tenured teachers as part of an overall workforce reduction, but must consider seniority when determining which teachers will be fired.
Since taking office, Governor Christie has made tenure reform a top education priority. On February 6th, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, Teresa Ruiz, re-introduced a bill to dramatically overhaul how tenure is awarded. Ruiz proposed annual teacher evaluations for every NJ public school teacher. Ratings of either highly effective, effective, partially effective or ineffective based on student academic performance and classroom evaluations would be made. Low scoring teachers would lose tenure, but receive mentorship and professional development opportunities. Tenure status could be re-won after two years of highly effective or effective ratings.
Overall, the concept of retaining effective teachers and removing lazy and incompetent teachers makes sense. Who hasn’t experienced the mind-numbing and demoralizing bad teacher experience at least once over the course of their education? Who wouldn’t support making sure NJ’s students are taught by the best, the brightest and most capable professionals the state can find?
The devil for this issue, as with so many others, is in the details. Who will perform these evaluations? What will these reviews include? How will teachers in the lowest performing districts, where poverty is high, parental involvement is low, crime is rampant and children are often left to fend for themselves, ever achieve the ratings necessary to protect their jobs?
If seniority is removed, how will the longer serving, higher paid professionals be evaluated when a low rating will eliminate their job and reduce salary costs for cash-strapped districts?
How will teachers who have a run in with the principal, or the superintendant, or a parent or local politician, be rated compared with a colleague who keeps below the radar. How will educators who hold recalcitrant students to a higher standard fare should the child’s parents object to the level of performance being required? Will creativity be rewarded, or will teachers who mindlessly follow lesson plans created a decade earlier come out on top?
We say unless and until a fair, objective and proven system for teacher evaluations is developed, tenure reform will simply be used as a way to advance the agenda of whomever is in power to make tenure decisions, be it a superintendent, a principal or a politician.
We say with a public education system that ranks at the top of the nation, and 26th in the world, NJ has much to defend and much to lose should we take our winning school model and dismantle portions in order to score political victories or lower education costs.
Teachers are the heart and soul of our schools. Tenure is one of the main attractions to a profession that offers modest pay and limited room for advancement. It helps keep the best and brightest at the front of our classrooms. We say while a small portion of the tenure system may be in need of repair, NJ public schools are far from broken and reform advocates would be well advised to remember that it is our top-notch public schools that solidify our property values and make NJ a desirable place for families to call home.
What do you say?
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