I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Friday, March 29, 2013

Reformy Buyers Remorse

Ruh-roh:
As the Christie administration’s new regulations for teacher evaluation near a critical juncture, the prime author of the landmark tenure reform law behind the proposed rules said the administration may be moving too aggressively in some places. 
State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), the legislator most credited for the new tenure law, said yesterday in some of her first public comments on the regulations that the administration’s plans to base 35 percent of certain teachers’ evaluations on state test scores, starting next year, may be too ambitious. 
“If we are going to roll out regulations in the first year with the 35 percent component, I have severe concerns with that,” Ruiz said in an interview. 
Ruiz, usually fairly circumspect in her public comments, said she is not against the system building to 35 percent over time, but not right away. “It would be a more responsible approach if we grew to that 35 percent,” she said.
What would be "more responsible" would be to have an evaluation plan that made mathematical and practical sense; AchieveNJ is clearly not that plan. Given the way the NJDOE apparently wants to convert test scores into a teacher evaluation measure, I'd say the least of our worries is whether the tests count for 35 percent or not.

There's also the issue of the bias SGPs have against teachers of children in economic distress. Maybe we should have thought about these things back when the TEACHNJ law was being written:
State Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, who worked with Ruiz in crafting the tenure law, said yesterday that his staff’s regulations were in keeping with the statute that Ruiz sponsored and was unanimously approved last summer.
I hate to admit this, but Cerf is right: everything his DOE is doing is within the parameters of the law. It's a little late for Ruiz to be worrying about this now; where were these concerns earlier this year when the bill was being shoved through the Legislature? 

When the lawsuits start, Senator, don't say you weren't warned...

AchieveNJ: Operation Hindenburg

3 comments:

isthisrob said...

She got played. Moron.

Unknown said...

No, she did not get "played"....she was simply doing what she was ordered to do by her boss and mentor, Joseph DiVencensio, the Essex County Executive. Don't forget the deal she made with him to keep her husband, Essex County Freeholder Samuel Gonzalez. Joey got him off the hook, but in return, Sen Ruiz became his pawn in the Senate. She DID NOT attend any NJEA meetings to discuss the issue....She DID NOT do any research on the issue, she simply cut and pasted laws given to her from DiVencencio and Christie from the ALEC board...She DID NOT consult with the Danielson team on whether the system is valid or not...she DID NOT consult with any of her peers in other states...she simply did what she was told. Now she is SORRY. Sorry girl, the Pandora's Box is open and umlike the fairy tale, there is no HOPE in the bottom of the chest. I think she should be impeached for what she did!

Rod viquez said...

She is a joke and makes me sick....