NJ Spotlight | American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, AFL-CIO

State Test Scores Reveal Some Gains, Widening Achievement Gap

February 02, 2012

Budget cuts cost New Jersey school districts $1 billion, with some of the poorest districts paying the biggest price

By John Mooney

The annual release of New Jersey school test scores can be maddening in its mixed messages.

On the one hand, the 2010-2011 scores released yesterday rose slightly or at least held steady overall in a majority of grades, a good thing for what have been tough times. In math, there were some notable gains for any given year.

On the other, state officials are quick to point out that the gaps in achievement between rich and poor, white and minority, are wide and in some instances widening alarmingly.

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Christie Calls for Restructuring of Research Universities

January 27, 2012

Governor plans to create N.J. Health Sciences University in Newark, merge Rutgers-Camden into Rowan University

By Mark J. Magyar

Sol J. Barer, chairman of the UMDNJ Advisory Committee

Governor Christie yesterday outlined a sweeping overhaul of higher education that would create a New Jersey Health Sciences University in Newark to replace UMDNJ, place Newark’s University Hospital under nonprofit management, and fold Rutgers-Camden and its law school into Rowan University to give South Jersey its own research university.

Combined with the shift of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the School of Public Health from UMDNJ to Rutgers University in New Brunswick last fall, Christie’s plan represents the most important restructuring of New Jersey’s higher education system since the creation of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1970.

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Finger-Pointing Precedes Teacher Contract Talks in Newark

January 25, 2012

With negotiations resuming, union, superintendent at odds over plans for troubled schools

By John Mooney

The last time negotiators for the state-run Newark Public Schools met with the district’s teachers union, the $100 million Facebook gift was not yet national headlines and Superintendent Cami Anderson was still an administrator in New York City schools.

And it didn’t go well, either, ending with contract talks at an impasse ever since.

On Thursday, the two sides are set to sit down again at the offices of the Newark Teachers Union, seeking to jumpstart talks on the contract. They’re not starting particularly smoothly, either, with Anderson and the 5,000-member union continuing to be at odds over her plans for the district.

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Can Trenton Find Funding for Higher Education Facilities?

January 23, 2012

Christie and new Senate committee agree that college infrastructure gets failing grade
By John Mooney

Gov. Chris Christie

The physical condition and capacity of many of New Jersey’s public colleges and universities has long been a sore spot for the state. Its last general obligation bond on the schools’ behalf was in 1988 for $350 million.

“That’s a long time ago, and a lot of buildings are crumbling since,” said former Gov. Thomas Kean, who was in office at the time and last year led a task force calling for the state’s help.

Now, the prospect of state investment -– or at least a voter referendum on it — may be growing.

Gov. Chris Christie last week said that funding for higher education facilities would be a priority of the coming year, and legislative leaders agreed there has been new talk on the topic.

There’s also a new Senate committee devoted specifically to colleges and universities, which will give higher education a higher profile in the Statehouse.

The committee meets for the first time this morning, and its chairwoman — state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson) — said she is sure that funding needs will be high on the list of concerns.

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For Christie, 2012 Is the Year to Act on Education Reform — Again

January 18, 2012

Teacher tenure gaining traction among lawmakers as debates on education continue to swirl
By John Mooney, January 18, 2012 in Education |1 Comment

There was no declaration that it would be the year of education reform this time at Gov. Chris Christie’s State of the State address, and certainly no star educator of national prominence in the audience.

Christie continued to keep education a priority, but it was not with the same fanfare of a year ago when he trumpeted an aggressive reform package before the legislature and enjoyed the front-row audience of Michelle Rhee, the famous former Washington, D.C., chancellor.

But even while the reform message didn’t carry the same oomph it once did, that is not to say education won’t get a lot of attention in the year ahead, just maybe in different ways and hanging on different issues.

On the reform front, much of Christie’s platform centering on teacher tenure and charter schools is already underway and being carried by others, including prominent Democrats.

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Driving the Teacher Quality Component for Education Reform

January 12, 2012

Assistant State Commissioner Peter Shulman brings experience and expertise to his latest post
By John Mooney

Peter Shulman

The man in charge of New Jersey’s latest effort to improve teacher quality easily uses terms like “human capital continuum,” “skill sets,” and “gap analysis.”

Peter Shulman, the new assistant state commissioner and chief talent officer, is a very much a systems guy. That’s hardly surprising for someone not that long from getting an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Yet Shulman’s education and experience belie his 36 years. While he never taught in a classroom, he has held administrative stints in the Miami-Dade public schools and headed up the teacher quality push for Delaware’s education department, a forerunner in the education reform world. Shulman also holds a master’s in education from Penn.

Now just a month on the job in Trenton, Shulman will need all those credentials and experience in leading the teacher quality component of Gov. Chris Christie’s and acting commissioner Chris Cerf’s education reform policy.

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The State of the Governor’s Education Agenda

January 10, 2012

Christie was not short on ambition when it came to education, but how did he fare on his own promises?
By John Mooney

On the last day of its session yesterday, New Jersey’s state legislature passed one pilot bill to open up a dozen “renaissance schools” and another to allow districts to move school elections to November.

It was an anticlimactic end to a year that Gov. Chris Christie said would bring sweeping changes to public education.

Still, pension and health benefit reform and a 2 percent cap on school taxes are no small accomplishments, and the governor helped drive the debate over issues like tenure reform, merit pay, charter schools, and school funding — all of which are yet to be resolved.
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Fast-Tracked and Rewritten Bill Could Put Some Public Schools Under Private Management

January 06, 2012

The Urban Hope Act could bring new public schools — with some for-profit management — to some of Jersey’s poorest districts

By John Mooney

First proposed by Gov. Chris Christie and since taken up by South Jersey Democrats, a plan that would open up select public schools to nonprofit or even some limited for-profit management appears poised for passage in the final days of the legislature’s lame duck session.

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Administration Reveals Which Charters Have Made the First Cut

December 14, 2011

More than half the applications weeded out, at least for now
By John Mooney

With every detail of its process under scrutiny, the Christie administration said yesterday that 17 of 42 applications for new charter schools in the state have made the first cut in the latest review, while the remainder have been eliminated, at least for now.

Included in the latter group were a couple of the more controversial proposals, including a plan for an online charter out of Teaneck that had caused a budget stir and protest in that Bergen County town. A second online proposal also fell short, as did the only two proposals this round for charters in Paterson.

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Newark’s First Foray into Teacher Evaluation Pilot, with Teachers Front and Center

December 14, 2011

[...] Newark is one of 11 districts in the state piloting a controversial plan led by Gov. Chris Christie that would more closely tie teacher evaluation — and potentially tenure — to student achievement.

And while plenty of controversy remains, several in the group last night said they appreciated at least being included in the process, no small thing in a state-operated district that has not always held such trust between teachers and administration.

One vote of appreciation, if not full confidence, came from the union leaders that up until then had been lukewarm and even hostile to the plans.

“You seem to be more open and willing to different stakeholders,” said Cheryl Skeete, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers NJ, the umbrella organization for the Newark Teachers Union.

“It seems more well-rounded than earlier when we were told it was only one way,” she told Anderson’s staff. “That should help in getting more buy-in.”

That should mean something. The NTU has openly opposed the pilot as it stood up till now, surely contributing to the fact that not one of the district’s 80-plus schools voted to join the pilot in its first year. That left just seven schools included, all of them as a condition of large federal grants.

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