Bill Would Revise Teacher Tenure Rules

The head of the Senate Education Committee is reintroducing a bill to revise teacher tenure rules in New Jersey.

Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-Newark, has been working for months to craft a measure that could gain acceptance by the Legislature, Gov. Chris Christie and the teachers' union.

The new bill assigns teachers to one of four categories after annual evaluations: highly effective, effective, partially effective, and ineffective. The assessments will look at classroom practices and student progress.

The bill also proposes using the performance categories as the first factor to determine layoffs, followed by seniority.

Ruiz introduced the bill last month but pulled it to make tweaks.  New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve Wollmer says the union is evaluating the new bill, which will be online later Monday.

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