Christie Wants New Jersey Teachers Evaluated By Student Test Scores
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) - New Jersey teachers would find their tenure and salary tied to annual evaluations based largely on student test scores, under a proposal unveiled by the state's acting education commissioner yesterday.
Governor Chris Christie promised to eliminate tenure for reasons he repeated at a talk in Washington.
"The bad teachers who remain with lifetime tenure are crowding out the opportunities for the good teachers."
Christie's choice for education commissioner, Christopher Cerf, provided the details at a talk at Princeton. Cerf proposed an annual teacher evaluation -- based in large part on student test scores. Teachers would get tenure after three consecutive good evaluations but would lose it if they got two bad evaluations in a row-- meaning, of course, it's not really tenure.
Teachers union spokesman Steve Wollmer a critic. He says research shows test scores are a bad way to judge teachers.
"You must have a fair standard for dismissing teachers because these are public jobs and politicians are always waiting in the wings to put their uncle or a friend of theirs into a job."
But the plan is embraced by the New Jersey school boards association, who agree with the governor that tenure has had a corrosive effect.
Reported by Pat Loeb, KYW Newsradio
