Christie Outlines Waiver Application, Tiering System

Gov. Chris Christie announced Wednesday the state's No Child Left Behind waiver application will contain the education reform agenda already awaiting action by the state legislature in the form of four bills introduced in July.

In addition, the administration announced that it will develop and publish new school performance reports for every school in the state. The reports will include progress toward closing achievement gaps, comparison to peer schools, performance on state tests over time, and additional college and career readiness data points, according to a release by the administration.

As part of the reform agenda, the New Jersey Department of Education would create a new tiering system. The administration is calling the three tiers Priority Schools, Focus Schools and Reward Schools. The department would focus its intervention on Priority and Focus Schools, according to the release.

Much of the waiver application appears to be based on legislation already proposed by the Christie administration.

"Our education reforms, contained in four specific bills sitting in the legislature today, are aggressive in meeting this challenge, bipartisan and in-line with the Obama Administration’s national agenda to raise standards, strengthen accountability systems, support effective teachers and focus more resources to the classroom,” Christie said in a prepared statement.

In September, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced proposals would be considered from states seeking to waive provisions of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) if they indicate a strong commitment to improving student performance, reducing the achievement gap, and turning around underperforming schools. NCLB requires all children to be efficient in math and reading by 2014. A waiver would allow districts and states additional flexibility in providing support and interventions to struggling schools.

According to the Christie administration, the four bills attached to the reform agenda and waiver application have been in the legislature for 133 days since they were introduced. The bills were originally outlined in the fall of 2010.

The Christie administration says the bills will, in part:

• Tie tenure to effectiveness
• End forced placements and last-in-first-out personnel policies
• Increase the number of charter school authorizers
• Permit public schools to be converted to charter schools by local boards of education, as well as the NJ Department of Education Commissioner
• Provide tax credits to entities contributing to scholarships for low-income students
• Provide for the creation of as many as 10 "transformation school projects" in five of the state's worst performing districts

Acting New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf said he believes NCLB remains an important piece of legislation, but that it comes with some problems.

"The law suffers from some significant flaws, including its failure to give credit for progress and its one-size-fits-all approach to labeling schools as failing,” Cerf said.

“Through our waiver application we have developed a new accountability system that allows for differentiated supports and interventions of the schools with the most pervasive and persistent achievement problems. The proposed legislation is crucial to enhance our ability to turn around our lowest performing schools and ensure that students in those schools have the options they deserve."