New Jersey is not among the states named Thursday as finalists for phase 1 of the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top competition. States are competing for $4.35 billion in funds to reform their educational systems to better prepare students for a competitive 21st century economy and workplace.
The phase 1 finalists are: Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
New Jersey had been eligible for as much as $400 million over four years, but the state's application was controversial. It did not get the support of the state's largest teacher's union, the New Jersey Education Association, which was concerned about provisions linking teacher evaluations to student test scores.
To read full article, click here. From the Press of Atlantic City, March 4, 2010, Diane D'Amico, Education Writer.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
NJ won't get federal "Race to the Top" school aid
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5 comments:
The NJEA was concerned about provisions linking teacher evaluations to student test scores. So, NJ lost the chance to receive $400 million.
The other States didn't seem to have a problem with this provision. The taxpayers of NJ are being told to pay for gold-plated benefit packages and high salaries for incompetent teachers.
The educational system in this State is broken.
The taxpayers are sucked dry and to not apply for federal aid for this reason is an insult to all NJ citizens and a crime against our children.
Our schools are going to end up being full of incompetent tenured old teachers who have 50 or more kids per class. Bright,young teachers will be working at Wal Mart,if they're lucky.
While other States are "Racing for the Top",NJ will be sinking to the bottom.
"It did not get the support of the state's largest teacher's union, the New Jersey Education Association, which was concerned about provisions linking teacher evaluations to student test scores."
The Press better stop writing these types of negative stories about the NJEA or it will wind up losing their advertising business, which regularly appears on the Press Commentary page.
More from the print version of the article:
"From the start of this process it has been clear that while the Corzine administration submitted a good application, a major deficiency in New Jersey's submission was the lack of support from local union leadership," Schundler said in a prepared statement. "With union leaders in more than 350 participating districts refusing to sign on, it would have been very difficult to convince the U.S. Department of Education that New Jersey was united behind this effort."
Additionally:
"New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve Wollmer said members are willing to work with the state but still have two major concerns. One is linking student test results to teacher evaluations, which the NJEA believes will lead to even more testing. The other concern is that the $400 million the state might receive over four years would not be enough to cover all the programs promised in the application."
It seems to me that the real concern of the NJEA was that raises would somehow be linked to individual teacher evaluations. Unions don't work that way. It destroys the group's cohesiveness if one member is pitted against another.
Re 8:07 am
"The other concern is that the $400 million would not be enough to cover all the programs promised in the application".
That's a lot of money. I'm sure it could have been stretched out to cover the basics of the programs if it was handled correctly and honestly. The NJEA has decided that the NJ children aren't worth the time or effort it would take to implement the new educational methods.
The private sector workers are evaluated by the work they produce. They are given raises or reprimands based on their efforts. A teacher should have the same types of evaluations. If a 1/4 or 1/2 of a class fails to pass a state test, that teacher should be looked at closely. A professional classroom monitor should be required to sit in the classes and make recommendations to improve that teacher's performance.
As far as pitting one teacher against the other,I don't think the good teachers would mind one bit if the school's administration came down on the slackers. They might be happy about it,grateful and feel less resentful that they're busting their tired ( ! ) to help the kids while others just skate by and collect a padded pay check.
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