NJ Education Report

It starts here:

Last Thursday, the state Senate Education Committee heard testimony from proponents and opponents of a draft bill (S-2154) that would postpone by two years the incorporation of student growth data into teacher evaluations.

A companion bill coasted through the Assembly earlier this month, and the Senate is expected to take the final bill up today, its fate uncertain.

But the politics on view last week are worth dissecting.

Lobbyists who supported the draft’s proposed delay argued that sticking to the original timeline is punitive and reckless. While the regulations attached to TEACHNJ, the state’s 2012 tenure and teacher evaluation reform legislation, call for implementation next year, there’s strong sentiment that this is too much reform too soon. Steve Baker, spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, told the Senate committee, “(T)he state is rushing into implementing a system that is just not ready.”

Continue here.