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NJ Teacher evaluation gets a new start
The timing may not be intentional, but the Christie administration’s announcement yesterday of its pilot teacher evaluation system in 11 districts came almost to the day on a conspicuous anniversary.
It was a year ago — and a week — that Gov. Chris Christie fired Bret Schundler as his education commissioner over what was a mishap on the state’s failed application for federal Race to the Top money, a grant that aimed to put in place this very evaluation system statewide.
A firestorm erupted and accusations flew, and tensions only heightened over how the administration was going to handle Christie’s central quest to tighten teacher accountability — without a $400 million federal grant to help pay for it.
Needless to say, and admittedly for other reasons, too, Christie’s relations with the teachers unions, who had an on-again-off-again relationship, with Schundler only worsened.
A year later, the system that would directly tie teacher evaluation to student achievement is seeing a distinctly calmer roll-out with yesterday’s announcement of the pilot. A top official of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) even used the words “cautious optimism.” (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
