MikeStopa.com
4/30/2011
I had the pleasure of listening to Chris Christie address the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Friday (April 28, 2011). Here are some observations…
Addressing the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Askwith Forum on Friday afternoon, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie chose two audience members from the front row, asked them their first names, and, casting them in the roles of two teachers being evaluated at the end of the year, as the school principal, addressed them something like this.
“Robert, you have been one of our best teachers this year. You are always here long before the morning bell and long after the afternoon bell. Your lesson plans are continually updated and innovative. Not only do your students love you, but by every measure we have your students are excelling. Parents call me and tell me how great you are at teaching their children and at communicating to them how their children are doing. I would like to ask you to come back next year and I would like to offer you a 4% raise.”
“Now Pamela, you are a lost cause. Pamela, we have all been disappointed again this year with your performance. You show up every day with the bell and you leave every day with the bell. Your lesson plans haven’t changed in years and your teaching shows it. Your students complain and the parents of your students complain all the time. Furthermore, the performance of your students is systematically well below average. I would like you to come back next year and I would like to offer you a 4% raise.”
And that is the problem with education in New Jersey…
The article continues at MikeStopa.com
Update: At Newsmax, Christie at Harvard: Education Systems Need Change
…“We have an education system that is set up for the ease, comfort and security of those who operate it,” Christie said, urging his audience, many of whom may become leaders of schools, to be “disrupters.” He said they should disrupt “fat, rich and entitled unions” because that’s what’s needed to fix U.S. public schools…
…New Jersey spends $17,620 per pupil annually, more than any other U.S. state, yet more than 100,000 students are trapped in failing schools, Christie has said. Stuart
“Money is not the answer to that problem,” Christie said in his remarks. “New Jersey is the laboratory that proves that.”…
H/T Maggie’s Farm
