NJ Education Report

Andrew Rotherham at Eduwonk on Gov. Christie’s Teaching Effectiveness Task Force:

Chris Christie, New Jersey’s bombastic governor, is surely a piece of work. But he pulled a fast one with his new teacher effectiveness task force. When the state NEA affiliate is stuck protesting that a panel including an executive of the state AFT affiliate doesn’t have teacher representation, well…that’s a pretty hard sell.

Also see NJ Spotlight on the nine-member committee.

Elsewhere (in Time Magazine) Rotherham explains how ed reformers recognize de facto school segregation but put their energies elsewhere:

No one in the mainstream of the education debate wants segregated schools. But while such schools are not an immutable condition, they are an unfortunate fact of life. That’s why so many in the reform community see issues such as improving teacher effectiveness, providing a better curriculum and expanding high-performing charter schools in underserved communities as more impactful and immediate steps than grand schemes to change housing policy or school-district boundaries. And of course, there are plenty of schools that demonstrate that high poverty rates and low achievement are not inexorably linked. These reformers, myself included, are not opposed to efforts to create more economically integrated schools. We’re just keenly attuned to the practical constraints.

Sara Mead at EdWeek continues the conversation on the “limits of socio-economic integration.”

There’s yet another entry in the burgeoning education reform film industry: “Teached.”

Norman Atkins of Uncommon Schools explains how some of the best charter schools get results in poor urban areas and challenges city superintendents to “embrace this new generation of teachers and innovators and hold them accountable for results, rather than clinging to old models.”

101.5 is reporting that Chris Christie formally offered the DOE Commish job to Michelle Rhee, but don’t hold your breath.

New Jersey School Boards Association has formally come out against S-1940/A-2772, a bill that would force school districts to apply any money saved through effective bargaining with unions to rehiring teachers from that union.

NJEA leaders and the Christie Administration are still arguing over whether NJ’s last-minute application for $268 million in Edujobs money forced districts to lay off teachers unnecessarily. Steve Baker of NJEA says that “the governor put politics ahead of up to 3,900 jobs.” Michael Drewniak, Christie press secretary, said, “The NJEA could have been part of the shared sacrifice, but this outfit does not share and does not sacrifice.”