BIG CONCERNS SPUR BIG TURNOUT OF TEACHERS AT ANNUAL NJEA CONVENTION
Tougher evaluations, new standards and testing for students – and re-election of nemesis Gov. Chris Christie – among items on agenda
Maybe it was the pent-up energy from the year off due to Hurricane Sandy. The New Jersey Education Association's annual convention came back yesterday in full force with capacity-crowd workshops, a busy exhibition hall, and plenty of questions about coming changes in how teachers do their jobs.
The nation’s largest state convention for teachers drew more than 30,000 educators to the Atlantic City Convention Center, according to the union, which said it the event’s biggest turnout in at least a decade.
The exhibition hall was often near gridlock, and many workshops were turning away attendees for lack of space -- those dealing with coming mandates regarding teacher evaluation and new standards and testing were especially sought after.
One of the hottest tickets was a session led by Charlotte Danielson, the architect of a teacher-evaluation model being used in a majority of New Jersey school districts as part of the state’s new tenure-reform law, which aims to hold teachers more