Stress in NJ Education is off the charts

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New Jersey Teachers Chatboard

Stress in NJ Education is off the charts

by spedup

Dec 19, 2011

Fellow teachers, Before anyone slams me for stating my opinion I want to say that I realize that economy is very tough right now and there are plenty of good people out of work in all fields but I need to state my opinion because in NJ we have a Governor who is trying to hold teachers accountable for the failings of the economy in general, specifically the banking industry, housing market, shoddy spending by previous NJ administrations and whatever else he can blame us for. Governor Christie is trying to get rid of tenure and on the face value people say, "That's a good thing because I don't have job security in my banking job." True, but trust me when I tell you that there are politics involved in every school and using student test scores to decide who is effective and who is not is truly one of the worst things that can happen. Administrations can twist and manuever scores any way they want to get the desired results. True, to get rid of a crappy teacher via the Tenure process is lo...See MoreFellow teachers, Before anyone slams me for stating my opinion I want to say that I realize that economy is very tough right now and there are plenty of good people out of work in all fields but I need to state my opinion because in NJ we have a Governor who is trying to hold teachers accountable for the failings of the economy in general, specifically the banking industry, housing market, shoddy spending by previous NJ administrations and whatever else he can blame us for. Governor Christie is trying to get rid of tenure and on the face value people say, "That's a good thing because I don't have job security in my banking job." True, but trust me when I tell you that there are politics involved in every school and using student test scores to decide who is effective and who is not is truly one of the worst things that can happen. Administrations can twist and manuever scores any way they want to get the desired results. True, to get rid of a crappy teacher via the Tenure process is long and costly and does need to be streamlined a little, but to make a blanket policy that all teachers have to be judged highly effective or effective in order to retain their job is ridiculous. Before you slam that statement please wait. I don't mean that a teacher who is beyond a dought not doing their job shouldn't be removed. What I mean is the evaluation system cannot be trusted to adequately measure a teachers ability to teach or not. I can speak for my school only(and a few others) when I say that the system for evaluation changes yearly as do the makeup of the students from year to year. Some years, some classes I have had are absolutely a joy to work with while other years the kids are chronically absent, behind their peers gradewise, disruptive etc. I am not complaining because I know that is what I signed up for. I am just stating that I have little control of certain things. Some schools have wealthy families who will supply their children with the needed materials, while others such as mine have hard working families, good people but lots of single parent homes where parent needs to work 2-3 jobs to make ends meet and kids are left to fend for themselves a little more. It is not equal. The schools are not equal. Hence, the educators should not be judged by same criteria. I have not even begun to desribe the low morale in my school or the reasons why I think our Gov would bash the teaching profession, but it is a problem. It is real, the stress is real, and we need to stand up and not let Christie bully us anymore.

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Nat On 12/19/11, spedup wrote:

I work in NY, and we have a similar situation, although not nearly as bad. And I mean not NEARLY as bad. We have a hiring freeze as well, it is almost impossible for recent grads to get a job, unless they teach special ed, bilingual, or esl subjects. Those don't have a hiring freeze apply to them. The saddest thi...See MoreOn 12/19/11, spedup wrote:

I work in NY, and we have a similar situation, although not nearly as bad. And I mean not NEARLY as bad. We have a hiring freeze as well, it is almost impossible for recent grads to get a job, unless they teach special ed, bilingual, or esl subjects. Those don't have a hiring freeze apply to them. The saddest thing of all is that the children suffer from this tremendously. And the ones that suffer the most are the ones you mentioned that come from single parent families etc. I also agree that student scores is not the best criterion upon which a teacher should be judged, at the very least it should not be the only. I think it should be similar to college courses where students rate the teachers at the end of the course. It should be a few factors that are looked at, not just one.

> Fellow teachers, Before anyone slams me for stating my > opinion I want to say that I realize that economy is very > tough right now and there are plenty of good people out of > work in all fields but I need to state my opinion because > in NJ we have a Governor who is trying to hold teachers > accountable for the failings of the economy in general, > specifically the banking industry, housing market, shoddy > spending by previous NJ administrations and whatever else > he can blame us for. Governor Christie is trying to get > rid of tenure and on the face value people say, "That's a > good thing because I don't have job security in my banking > job." True, but trust me when I tell you that there are > politics involved in every school and using student test > scores to decide who is effective and who is not is truly > one of the worst things that can happen. Administrations > can twist and manuever scores any way they want to get the > desired results. True, to get rid of a crappy teacher via > the Tenure process is long and costly and does need to be > streamlined a little, but to make a blanket policy that all > teachers have to be judged highly effective or effective in > order to retain their job is ridiculous. Before you slam > that statement please wait. I don't mean that a teacher > who is beyond a dought not doing their job shouldn't be > removed. What I mean is the evaluation system cannot be > trusted to adequately measure a teachers ability to teach > or not. I can speak for my school only(and a few others) > when I say that the system for evaluation changes yearly as > do the makeup of the students from year to year. Some > years, some classes I have had are absolutely a joy to work > with while other years the kids are chronically absent, > behind their peers gradewise, disruptive etc. I am not > complaining because I know that is what I signed up for. I > am just stating that I have little control of certain > things. Some schools have wealthy families who will supply > their children with the needed materials, while others such > as mine have hard working families, good people but lots of > single parent homes where parent needs to work 2-3 jobs to > make ends meet and kids are left to fend for themselves a > little more. It is not equal. The schools are not equal. > Hence, the educators should not be judged by same criteria. > I have not even begun to desribe the low morale in my > school or the reasons why I think our Gov would bash the > teaching profession, but it is a problem. It is real, the > stress is real, and we need to stand up and not let > Christie bully us anymore.

Jan 3, 2012

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Heather in FL I agree. Another point that the public doesn't understand is the blacklisting that happens to teachers. If you get fired as a nurse from a doctor's office because the doc had it in for you, you can apply to other offices, hospitals, and agencies to work. You might end up working even closer to home in your new job. However, as a teacher, I would ha...See More

Jan 3, 2012

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Heather in FL On 1/03/12, Heather in FL wrote: > I agree. Another point that the public doesn't understand is

Oops, I thought I was on the main teacher board. How did I end up in NJ? Oh well.

Jan 3, 2012

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HereinFL If you think NJ is bad, you can't even imagine how things are in FL. We had the "Value added" model rammed through the legislature this year. All teachers here are on annual contracts forever now. (tenure gone for those who don't already have it). Pay is in the gutter (my friend made $38,000 here and is now making $66,000 in NJ. She says family ins...See MoreIf you think NJ is bad, you can't even imagine how things are in FL. We had the "Value added" model rammed through the legislature this year. All teachers here are on annual contracts forever now. (tenure gone for those who don't already have it). Pay is in the gutter (my friend made $38,000 here and is now making $66,000 in NJ. She says family insurance will be $80/month and here it costs us $800 a month (yes, you read that correctly). There is NO COLA in our pension anymore for younger teachers (again, rammed through this year).

We got ZERO raises this year, while health insurance premiums rose by $50 a month. We haven't had more than $200 raise in 6 years.

The state budget is short $2 BILLION again this year, so it looks like education will be cut again (they cut 8% last year!) Our state is mostly tea-partying old folks and hillbillies with barely a high school education (hence, the election of our Gov. Scott!).

In my school district, we have 2,300 homeless students and almost 60% of our total student population is on free/reduced lunch. (near Orlando)

Regarding this stupid push to eliminate tenure: Why is granting tenure after 3 years a bad thing? 3 years is more than enough time to determine if a teacher is fit to teach or not. If there are bad teachers in the classrooms, I blame lazy administrators. (and the teacher shortage which was very real here 5 years ago! They were begging anyone to take the job just 2 weeks before school started).

Why can't we at least grant tenure to the 'best' teachers? (the ones who score "highly effective" on the new value-added formula? NOPE - FL lawmakers crushed that proposal. So you are the "best" and raise test scores year after year, but all you are is a TEMP, contract employee whose job ENDS every June. What a punch in the face that is.

Then they promise us "merit pay" raises for scoring in the top two levels. Well, we don't even have the money to keep the freakin lights on now! My district is considering a 4-day school week because the budget keeps getting cut. Where is merit pay going to come from when the state budget is in the toilet year after year? Then we had lawmakers who pushed through a tax CUT for education on top of the other cuts. So our local education taxes FELL this year. (I pay more to the city and county than for the school part anyway, and my family pays way more for Medicare tax than we do for schools. Where is the fairness?)

Our new value-added evaluation plan is 100% un-tested. There is zero money for any teacher raises. The state is demanding a list of teachers by name and evaluation scores to see if they want to yank your teaching certificate. (yep) The value-added model has up to a 30% ERROR RATE. How is that for fun times as a teacher? In order for VA to be the most accurate, you have to use multiple years of data. (3 is a good start) We are going to use only 2, which makes a much higher error rate) AND when comparing the test scores each year, FL just passed a law that makes the scoring totally different and harder, so from year 1 to year 2, you won't see anything similar, which negates the entire basis of value-added comparison!

Finally, think about this: with NO tenure, teachers will be forever in fear of losing their jobs. What better way to keep them muzzled??? Nobody will be able to speak about about waste, fraud, and abuse that they might see at work. Nope, we will have to either lose our jobs or sweep it under the rug. Nice way for Principals and the Board to decide to save $$$ by denying services to students. (I saw that first hand in Georgia - we just stopped giving services to ESOL and ESE because we needed to keep those sub-groups small. I was actually told that by the AP at my school).

FL will have a test in every single subject soon. 1st grade PE = multiple choice test and the kiddies better pass or Coach will be fired.

All this does is make the stupid testing companies RICH. You should see all of the errors in our textbooks here. We find at least 10 per week. Major errors with content and the mult. choice questions. This is the same company that produces and scores our standardized test that is the ONLY thing teachers will be rated on for the value-added. (just one big test per year - no other tests + your classroom evaluation, split 50/50 the test and your evaluations.

Things are just too screwed up for words in education today, and then we have the Presidential candidates who want to de- fund the Dept of Ed and close it down. We are going backwards in all possible ways.

On 12/19/11, spedup wrote: > Fellow teachers, Before anyone slams me for stating my > opinion I want to say that I realize that economy is very > tough right now and there are plenty of good people out of > work in all fields but I need to state my opinion because > in NJ we have a Governor who is trying to hold teachers > accountable for the failings of the economy in general, > specifically the banking industry, housing market, shoddy > spending by previous NJ administrations and whatever else > he can blame us for. Governor Christie is trying to get > rid of tenure and on the face value people say, "That's a > good thing because I don't have job security in my banking > job." True, but trust me when I tell you that there are > politics involved in every school and using student test > scores to decide who is effective and who is not is truly > one of the worst things that can happen. Administrations > can twist and manuever scores any way they want to get the > desired results. True, to get rid of a crappy teacher via > the Tenure process is long and costly and does need to be > streamlined a little, but to make a blanket policy that all > teachers have to be judged highly effective or effective in > order to retain their job is ridiculous. Before you slam > that statement please wait. I don't mean that a teacher > who is beyond a dought not doing their job shouldn't be > removed. What I mean is the evaluation system cannot be > trusted to adequately measure a teachers ability to teach > or not. I can speak for my school only(and a few others) > when I say that the system for evaluation changes yearly as > do the makeup of the students from year to year. Some > years, some classes I have had are absolutely a joy to work > with while other years the kids are chronically absent, > behind their peers gradewise, disruptive etc. I am not > complaining because I know that is what I signed up for. I > am just stating that I have little control of certain > things. Some schools have wealthy families who will supply > their children with the needed materials, while others such > as mine have hard working families, good people but lots of > single parent homes where parent needs to work 2-3 jobs to > make ends meet and kids are left to fend for themselves a > little more. It is not equal. The schools are not equal. > Hence, the educators should not be judged by same criteria. > I have not even begun to desribe the low morale in my > school or the reasons why I think our Gov would bash the > teaching profession, but it is a problem. It is real, the > stress is real, and we need to stand up and not let > Christie bully us anymore.

Jan 5, 2012

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True-D teachers of new jersey: the state cannot afford to pay 100% of your health coverage. you complain when teachers are laid off, yet your union refused to negotiate with the state. the NJEA would rather have teachers laid off than have any of you pay additional monies for your benefits. and so sorry, we cannot offer you tenure without personal respons...See Moreteachers of new jersey: the state cannot afford to pay 100% of your health coverage. you complain when teachers are laid off, yet your union refused to negotiate with the state. the NJEA would rather have teachers laid off than have any of you pay additional monies for your benefits. and so sorry, we cannot offer you tenure without personal responsibility. yes, that's right. if your students fail that means YOU have failed. and since when do people who work less than 3/4 of a year get to demand salaries totaling more than workers in the private sector who put in a full 52 weeks?

please fasten your seat belts. welcome to reality.

> On 12/19/11, spedup wrote: >> Fellow teachers, Before anyone slams me for stating my >> opinion I want to say that I realize that economy is very >> tough right now and there are plenty of good people out of >> work in all fields but I need to state my opinion because >> in NJ we have a Governor who is trying to hold teachers >> accountable for the failings of the economy in general, >> specifically the banking industry, housing market, shoddy >> spending by previous NJ administrations and whatever else >> he can blame us for. Governor Christie is trying to get >> rid of tenure and on the face value people say, "That's a >> good thing because I don't have job security in my banking >> job." True, but trust me when I tell you that there are >> politics involved in every school and using student test >> scores to decide who is effective and who is not is truly >> one of the worst things that can happen. Administrations >> can twist and manuever scores any way they want to get the >> desired results. True, to get rid of a crappy teacher via >> the Tenure process is long and costly and does need to be >> streamlined a little, but to make a blanket policy that all >> teachers have to be judged highly effective or effective in >> order to retain their job is ridiculous. Before you slam >> that statement please wait. I don't mean that a teacher >> who is beyond a dought not doing their job shouldn't be >> removed. What I mean is the evaluation system cannot be >> trusted to adequately measure a teachers ability to teach >> or not. I can speak for my school only(and a few others) >> when I say that the system for evaluation changes yearly as >> do the makeup of the students from year to year. Some >> years, some classes I have had are absolutely a joy to work >> with while other years the kids are chronically absent, >> behind their peers gradewise, disruptive etc. I am not >> complaining because I know that is what I signed up for. I >> am just stating that I have little control of certain >> things. Some schools have wealthy families who will supply >> their children with the needed materials, while others such >> as mine have hard working families, good people but lots of >> single parent homes where parent needs to work 2-3 jobs to >> make ends meet and kids are left to fend for themselves a >> little more. It is not equal. The schools are not equal. >> Hence, the educators should not be judged by same criteria. >> I have not even begun to desribe the low morale in my >> school or the reasons why I think our Gov would bash the >> teaching profession, but it is a problem. It is real, the >> stress is real, and we need to stand up and not let >> Christie bully us anymore.

Mar 6, 2012

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