Christie administration also plans to make it easier for parents to track student, teacher performance online
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (left) with Ohio gubertorial candidate John Kasich as they sit at a lunch counter during a live webcast Q&A session at a campaign stop for Kasich just outside Cincinnati.OLD BRIDGE — Gov. Chris Christie this afternoon said teacher pay should be tied more to a complex measurement of student achievement, rather than the number of degrees on their wall or years of teaching under their belt.
After entering the packed Old Bridge town hall event to the Bruce Springsteen song "glory days," Christie outlined the his vision for running the state's education bureaucracy by rewarding effective teachers.
Christie said he wants to change the way teachers get raises, which are currently governed by pay grids that generally use number of years worked and degrees earned to determine teachers' pay. Instead, the Republican governor wants to ban using seniority alone to determine teacher pay and restrict the bumps for additional degrees to areas such as math and science, where "graduate degrees have proven to be effective markers of improved teacher performance," according to a press release from the governor.
He also proposed creating different ways to identify the best educators, rewarding people who earn "master" teacher or principal titles with the opportunity to mentor or even create a charter school.
To fill in the specifics on teacher evaluations, Christie created a task force through an executive order that will be expected to create an evaluation metric based at least half on student performance.
The Christie administration also plans to make it easier for parents to track student and teacher performance by putting more data online, including teacher evaluations.
Christie has made the high cost of education in New Jersey a central theme during his first year in office. He has talked about his disappointment with districts such as Newark, where low graduation rates persist, despite the tens of thousands spent per student every year.
He emphasized that cost today.
"Don't let anyone tell you that in New Jersey money is the issue behind a failure to achieve what we need to achieve," he said. "Money is the issue, not because of a failure to achieve, but because it's bankrupting our state."
By Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau and Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger
Previous coverage:
• Merit pay for teachers who improve students scores may not work, research shows
• Gov. Chris Christie to outline N.J. education reform agenda in town hall meeting
• Gov. Christie reveals plans to limit N.J. superintendents' salaries, base pay on merit
• Gov. Chris Christie to take education reform agenda to Hoboken
• N.J. Board of Education vows to continue reform after Race to the Top loss
• Oprah to host N.J. Gov. Christie, Newark Mayor Booker for $100M school gift by Facebook CEO
• Gov. Christie, on eve of Oprah appearance, says Newark schools 'in dire need'
• Merit pay for teachers who improve students scores may not work, research shows