N.J. Governor Wants to End Teacher Tenure
Posted on January 17th, 2011 by ASEE
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says teaching can no longer be the “only profession” without consequences for failure. Teachers in his state can gain tenure after three years. While defenders of the system say it ensures due process, critics contend the method for getting rid of bad teachers is too long and costly.
Filed under: K-12 Education News | 2 Comments »
Tags: Education Policy, Public Policy, Teachers
The nation receives a C when graded across the six distinct areas of policy and performance tracked by Quality Counts, the most comprehensive ongoing assessment of the state of American education. For the third year in a row, Maryland is the top-ranked state with a B-plus. The majority of states receive grades of C-plus or lower.
A new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation recommends that student assessments be based on skills, such as reading for information, locating information, and applied mathematics, instead of content. In STEM subjects, students’ desired outcome should be improved skills in inquiry, design, and the understanding and use of symbolic language in math. 
The school-reform enthusiasm that saw states compete for federal Race to the Top funding and change the way teachers are evaluated seems to have cooled. Anticipating cuts in state funding, school officials across the country are bracing for a pushback against reforms, including efforts to bolster STEM programs. 
Educators who try to fix the achievement gap afflicting young black males by focusing on their shortcomings have it backwards, argues Yvette Jackson, chief executive officer of the National Urban Alliance. “We must embrace a new approach to African-American males that focuses less on what they aren’t doing and builds on what they can and want to do as the path to improving their academic performance.”
An panel convened by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education is calling for an overhaul of teacher preparation in the United States, with training programs operating more like medical schools and setting tougher admission and graduation standards.
A new U.S. Department of Education plan calls for “revolutionary transformation” in how educators use technology to improve and measure student learning. The department plans to fund studies of online professional-collaboration communities for educators.
The long-documented achievement gap between black and white students turns out to be wider than is generally known. According to a new study focusing on young African American males, 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.
Tech-savvy teachers have long been irritated by firewalls and content filters installed on school computer systems to protect students’ safety and privacy. But Teacher magazine reports that complaints seem to be ratcheting up, and suggests why. 
