A Tale of Two Tenure Bills
Today, Senator Teresa Ruiz's tenure bill will most likely make it out of her committee; this follows on the heels of Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan's bill, which was approved by his committee last Thursday (despite the abstentions of the Republican members).Given the momentum, it's quite likely the two bills will be reconciled, put to full votes, and eventually land on Chris Christie's desk. But before looking at what it will take for the Assembly and Senate versions to become compatible, it's worth noting what the Ruiz bill has already given up:
1) Seniority. An earlier version of the Ruiz attempted to supplant seniority with teacher "effectiveness" when schools make high-stakes personnel decisions. This would have been a disaster. The fact is that all serious research has shown very high error rates when using student achievement - primarily gauged by standardized test scores - to determine "effectiveness." We also know that experience does correlate to student achievement,
1) Seniority. An earlier version of the Ruiz attempted to supplant seniority with teacher "effectiveness" when schools make high-stakes personnel decisions. This would have been a disaster. The fact is that all serious research has shown very high error rates when using student achievement - primarily gauged by standardized test scores - to determine "effectiveness." We also know that experience does correlate to student achievement,