Amid Common Core furor, N.J. announces review of standards

The New Jersey Department of Education has announced a review intended to improve curriculum standards in language arts and mathematics.

The plan, unveiled at Wednesday's state Board of Education meeting amid criticism of the federally promoted program, is meant to upgrade standards rather than starting from scratch, according to the department's presentation.

"New Jersey has a strong history of standards, and our review process will build upon the rigor and academic success of our standards in the past," according to the presentation.

The review was announced amid growing conservative criticism nationally of the so-called Common Core Curriculum Standards that New Jersey has adopted.

Gov. Christie, a Common Core supporter turned critic, said in May as he considered a presidential run that he had directed state Education Commissioner David Hespe to review the standards and possibly develop the state's own.

"We have to reject federal control of New Jersey's education," Christie said at the time.

New Jersey Education Association president Wendell Steinhauer, who has backed Common Core but said its implementation was rushed, attacked Christie's shifting position as "pure politics, not policy." He called the administration's review process a "sham" and complained that the main review committee will have only six classroom teachers out of 23 members.

"Gov. Christie has clearly decided that the only thing that matters is his political future," Steinhauer said in a statement.

The process will have a kindergarten-through-second-grade content subcommittee of 22 members and two 28-member content subcommittees for grades 3 through 12.

In other action before the board, the Education Department provided analysis of the first year of implementation of the state's new teacher evaluation system, which in part relies on student performance.

According to the analysis, 73.9 percent of the teachers were rated effective and 23.4 percent highly effective. For "school leaders," the rates were 62.2 percent effective and 35.2 percent highly effective.

The 2.7 percent of teachers - about 2,900 - rated ineffective or partially effective are getting help to improve, according to the department.

In addition, "experienced teachers" - those with three or more years - were more than twice as likely to earn a "high effective" rating. The highly effective rate for the experienced teachers was 25.3 percent, compared with 12.1 percent for novices.

Also, in a 6-4 vote, the board approved former state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf as superintendent of the state-controlled Newark School District.

He replaced Cami Anderson, whose state-appointed four-year term was marked by conflict.

"I look forward to working with the mayor, the board, and the community on continuing to improve education for Newark students and families," Cerf, 60, said in a statement.

The Montclair resident served as commissioner from January 2011 to February 2014. Like Anderson, he is known as a supporter of school choice.

According to NJ.com, giving Cerf the job has generated protests and suspicion, although state officials have said part of his charge is to try to return the district to local control. The Camden City district is also under state control.