The Continuing Mendacity of Chris Cerf
Wednesday, the ACTING NJ Commissioner of Education was in rare form:
After decades of frustratingly slow progress and expensive programs, the achievement gap between black, Hispanic or economically disadvantaged students in New Jersey has narrowed on key benchmark tests.Statewide results released Wednesday also show improvement in 31 select low-income school districts – such as Camden, Newark and Asbury Park -- that annually receive billions of dollars, and more than half of the state local education aid.State education officials, however, disputed the notion thatGeez Ruiz!
I only have time right now for a quick word about this new tenure bill from NJ Sen. Theresa Ruiz, as I have to run off to my job and conquer poverty, bad parenting, homelessness, racism, English-language deficiencies, autism, behavioral and cognitive disabilities, underfunding of schools...
Get my point? A huge body of research shows teachers account for 10-15% of test-based measures of student learning; the largest factors that determine a student's test scores occur out of school.
Yet Ruiz and other reformy types pat themselves on the back while focusing solely on teachers. It's like having the transmission fall out of your car, and then bragging about how you fixed it by inflating the tires. Yes, it's important to inflate the tires, but that's not the real problem.
Further, this bill assumes we can separate teachers into four classes of "effectiveness" when there is no
