Word: cooperman
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Some state teachers' unions have opposed legislation aimed at luring job switchers, arguing that it allows unqualified people into the classroom. However, many mid-careerists charge that the traditional system is too rigid, forcing even seasoned professionals to take two years of what New Jersey Education Commissioner Saul Cooperman calls "Mickey Mouse" education courses. Both camps agree on one point. Says Katherine Foster, 34, who gave up dentistry for the classroom to become a ninth- and tenth-grade teacher in San Benito County, Calif.: "Teaching is more rewarding than anything I ever imagined...
Last week, in an unprecedented move, New Jersey's board of education prescribed a drastic remedy: a state takeover of the Jersey City system for at least five years. Proposed by Commissioner Saul Cooperman and based on a law rammed through the legislature and signed last January by Governor Thomas Kean, the move was the first such action ever taken by a U.S. state against a large urban school district. Moreover, the quiet, toughly effective Cooperman, 53, whose earlier reforms in teacher training have already set national standards, is monitoring ten other troubled districts, including Camden, Hoboken and Newark...
...Cooperman plans to fire Jersey City Superintendent Franklin Williams, along with most of his top aides, and clean out the nine-member city school board -- provided the state board confirms his plan. Explains the commissioner: "We looked at how the district governs itself, financial aspects, how they handled personnel, hire, promote and transfer, and at the curriculum. The sickness is pervasive...
...Cooperman is already moving to take control of the district's personnel and money matters. Yet as the commissioner moves into battle, even some of his strongest supporters are wondering where the money will come from to rebuild the crumbled system and whether, after so many ruinous years, even the most drastic reforms will work for the people who matter most: the pupils. Says Cooperman: "We have got to get a critical core of people who will ask, 'Is our action good for kids?' That's the bottom line...
...turn away from such externally imposed regulations and encourage change from within. Principals and teachers, says P. Michael Timpane, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, "have got to be at the center of reform." Some localities have already realized this. In New Jersey, Commissioner of Education Saul Cooperman has sought to create teacher incentives, including bonuses for success in inner-city schools and grants for top teachers to spend in classrooms as they wish. Last fall Rochester teachers signed an innovative three-year contract granting greater classroom freedom and salaries that start at $29,000 and rise...