Teaching Profession

Teachers’ Contract Includes Peer Review

By Stephen Sawchuk — November 28, 2012 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Includes updates and/or revisions.

A newly ratified teachers’ contract in Newark creates several firsts for New Jersey.

Some teachers will have the opportunity to earn up to $12,500 extra for getting a superior performance rating on evaluations, teaching in a low-performing school, and teaching a high-need subject. Also for the first time, peer reviews will become a formal part of the evaluation process.

Under the three-year contract, approved by the city’s teaching force last month, all new hires and teachers with bachelor’s degrees will be placed on a new “universal” salary schedule that replaces premiums for holding advanced degrees with the opportunity to win the bonuses. Other teachers can choose to stay on a more traditional schedule.

Teachers will also get about $31 million in retroactive pay, covering the two-year period in which they worked under an expired contract.

Regardless of which salary schedule they’re on in the future, though, annual raises for experience will be contingent on earning a satisfactory evaluation rating.

“I like differentiating pay based on performance. I think it’s just good organizational policy,” said Shavar D. Jeffries, one of the members of the 26,000-student district’s advisory board, an elected body that provides assistance to the superintendent but does not set policy on its own. The Newark district has been under state control since 1995.

“I know educators are concerned about politics informing evaluations, so we have to police them to make sure they are accurate and reflect best practices in educating children,” Mr. Jeffries said.

To that end, the contract contains a number of checks and balances introduced into the evaluation system. Among other provisions, it:

• Sets up a joint union/management panel to oversee development of the district’s teacher-evaluation system;

• Establishes school improvement councils, including a teacher representative, in each school, which are responsible for professional development and evaluating teachers; and

• Creates a system of “peer validators,” who will act as a third-party check on evaluation decisions for teachers who received low ratings on prior evaluations.

“We are starting to develop the mindset that we’re professionals, and professionals usually weigh in and evaluate their peers,” said Joseph Del Grosso, the president of the Newark Teachers Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. “It’s a known fact, but seldom spoken, that teachers, when they’re in the lounge, are pretty critical of those who aren’t pulling their weight. They find it demeaning.”

The contract is similar in concept to those signed by AFT affiliates over the past two years in Baltimore and New Haven, Conn. A variety of state and national figures, including Republican Gov. Chris Christie, his handpicked education secretary Christopher Cerf, and AFT President Randi Weingarten, hailed the contract as a model.

Policy Context

The pact also bears the fingerprints of other education efforts in New Jersey, including a teacher-evaluation and tenure-reform bill that passed in August. Under the measure, teachers with a string of low reviews can be brought up on a tenure hearing. Mr. Del Grosso said he fought to get peer review into the Newark contract partly because of such provisions.

How the contract will be financed was not immediately clear. Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson said it would cost some $100 million in new funds. About half that amount was expected to be provided through a foundation created by Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of social-networking site Facebook. But the remainder is to come from public dollars, potentially a problem for the cash-strapped district, which had to close a $36 million gap for fiscal 2013.

Critics of the contract included the members of a new political “caucus,” or party, within the NTU. Called the New Caucus, the group has argued in documents on its website that the contract doesn’t address social-justice concerns, paves the way for more school shake-ups, and with its two salary schedules has the potential to divide the membership during future collective bargaining negotiations.

Similar groups have arisen in other AFT districts, including the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, in Chicago, and the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators, in New York City.

A version of this article appeared in the December 05, 2012 edition of Education Week as Union Contract in Newark Includes Peer Review

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Profession Opinion What My Professors Never Told Me About Teaching
In graduate school, I learned how to set up a classroom—but not how to survive one.
4 min read
Illustration of a black female on the side of a steep terrain pushing an oversized apple uphill. The sky is stormy and there are papers flying through the air. The terrain shows an old school desk, a chalkboard with math equations and a clock, both stuck in the side of the steep hill.
Jess Suttner for Education Week
Teaching Profession 'Here’s a Room. Here’s a Book. Good Luck': Veteran Teachers Reflect on How Their Careers Began
A little bit of support in the first year of teaching can go a long way, and older teachers are willing to mentor their new colleagues.
5 min read
Two female teachers in a school hallway having a discussion.
E+
Teaching Profession The State of Teaching It's 'a Passion, It’s Not Just a Paycheck': Teachers' Advice on Joining the Profession
If you go into the job with open eyes, it's worth it, say five teachers featured in EdWeek's The State of Teaching project.
Fourth grade students have fun interacting in a math class taught by Helen Chan at South Loop Elementary School on Nov. 15, 2023, in Chicago, Ill.
Fourth grade students have fun interacting in a math class taught by Helen Chan at South Loop Elementary School on Nov. 15, 2023, in Chicago.
Jamie Kelter Davis for Education Week
Teaching Profession The Finalists for National Teacher of the Year Have Ideas for Boosting Teacher Morale
The four award-winning teachers also met with U.S. lawmakers to advocate for their education causes of choice.
5 min read
Illustration of hands holding speech bubbles.
iStock / Getty Images Plus