Sunday, April 7, 2013
Union says student performance weighs too heavily in first-year evaluations.
Filling the small conference room where the State Board of Education meets in Trenton last week, about 40 members of the New Jersey Education Association tried to make their union’s presence felt in the push and pull over the state’s new teacher evaluation system. The board was in session to take up the administrative regulations that detail how New Jersey's 500-plus school districts will implement the evaluations required by TEACHNJ, the landmark teacher tenure law approved last summer. It was largely a procedural step -- known as the “second discussion” -- before the board formalizes the proposed regulations next month. It was also the first of two required public hearings on the plans. And it was where the NJEA intended to show that it …
Friday, March 29, 2013
Chief architect of tenure reform cautions against putting too much importance, too soon, on student performance on state tests.
As the Christie administration’s new regulations for teacher evaluation near a critical juncture, the prime author of the landmark tenure reform law behind the proposed rules said the administration may be moving too aggressively in some places. State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), the legislator most credited for the new tenure law, said yesterday in some of her first public comments on the regulations that the administration’s plans to base 35 percent of certain teachers’ evaluations on state test scores, starting next year, may be too ambitious. “If we are going to roll out regulations in the first year with the 35 percent component, I have severe concerns with that,” Ruiz said in an interview. Ruiz, usually fairly circumspect in her …
Monday, March 18, 2013
Educators raise questions, concerns about heavy emphasis on student test scores.
The Christie administration took its new teacher-evaluation system on the road last week -- and the maiden trip left few doubts there are going to be some bumps along the way. State Department of Education staffers held the first of a half-dozen public presentations on the new system, this one at Toms River High School North. Held at the end of the school day, it drew more than 200 people, many of them educators who will be judged under the new system. Many were from the Monmouth and Ocean counties, although some traveled from as far away as Ridgewood and Westfield. Most of the two-hour session was a tutorial on the detailed process, unveiled last week, that will rate every teacher and principal based on a mix of measures -- including …
Friday, March 8, 2013
At standing-room-only meeting of the state BOE, administration puts rough percentages to components of teacher ratings.
The Christie administration Wednesday continued to fill in the details of next year's new teacher evaluation system, including how -- and how much -- test scores will be used to determine final ratings. Plenty of questions remain. But by presenting their proposed regulations for the new system to the BOE, state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf and his top staff took an important first step, putting specific percentages to how much state test scores and other factors would count toward teacher ratings. For teachers in grades and subjects that are evaluated by state tests, such as elementary school language arts and math, student progress on those exams would count for 35 percent of an educator's rating in the first year, officials said. …
Thursday, March 7, 2013
NJEA says law goes beyond what it agreed to, puts too much stress on student test scores.
Even before the new code is introduced, the state’s largest teachers union is pushing back against proposed regulations for implementing the state’s new teacher-tenure law and rekindling some of the old debates that led up to the new law. The New Jersey Education Association reacted quickly to Monday’s online publication of the proposed regulations to be presented to the state Board of Education Wednesday, contending the code goes further than the law they agreed to last summer, including in its use of standardized test scores in evaluating teachers. “A lot of our worst fears are being realized,” Steve Wollmer, the NJEA’s communications director, said last night. The law sets new standards for evaluation of teachers, using both observation…
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Some wiggle room built in to give system room to evolve, but will it be enough to head off arguments over student test scores?
The Christie administration will roll out its long-awaited regulations for teacher evaluations today, including outlines for how student achievement will be used in grading teachers and principals, starting next school year. But one thing not coming will be specific state funding for districts to put the new systems in place. Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed 2014 state budget provides some extra money for arbitration but none for the districts themselves. The proposed regulations posted online by the state Department of Education yesterday indicated there could some flexibility in the yardstick for grading teachers under the new system, potentially quelling some of the expected debate over the use of student test scores. For example, rather …
Friday, January 11, 2013
Some educators suggest student surveys should be part of teacher-effectiveness evaluations.
With all the debate in New Jersey and elsewhere about evaluating teachers on how well their students perform, another idea is starting to surface that could prove equally provocative: judging teachers by what their students think of them. One of the options available to New Jersey school districts as they build teacher evaluation systems is including student surveys among the “multiple measures” of student achievement. The idea is gaining popularity, at least among policy-makers. Several districts that have been part of the pilot program testing evaluation models have included or plan to include student surveys, although not necessarily as part of a teacher's grade. In Alexandria, for instance, teachers survey their students and are …
Debbie Cabrera
10:57 am on Monday, April 8, 2013
I agree with the very first comment - teachers are responsible for teaching. And there are MANY excellent teachers in our district. Unfortunately there are teachers who cannot accomplish this task. My children (both excellent students, and one is now a successfully employed college grad) had a number of instances over the years where they had teachers who either couldn't connect with their … more ›