NJ Education Round-Up 3/9/13
Another jam-packed week of Garden State education policy and politics.- A New Teacher Evaluation System; Code Name: Operation Hindenberg
Over at my blog, Jersey Jazzman, I've started looking at the new system for teacher evaluation proposed by Education Commissioner Cerf and the NJDOE. My conclusion?
I'll have more to say this week in greater detail, but it really all comes down to these points:
- The proposals will put even more emphasis on standardized testing, further narrowing the curriculum. These tests have never been properly vetted and cost the state millions of dollars to produce, administer, and score. And only a fraction of the total teacher corps teaches a "tested" subject anyway, leading to spearate and unequal evaluation systems.
- The state will use a system called Student Growth Percentiles to evaluate teachers. But even the "inventor" of SGPs admits they cannot determine a teacher's effectiveness!
- When Senator Teresa Ruiz introduced the TEACHNJ act, she said she wanted to empower principals. Yet these changes would do the opposite: they will force principals to act even when they would rather not.
The code changes will be rolled out in a series of presentations around the state over the next month. There is
Over at my blog, Jersey Jazzman, I've started looking at the new system for teacher evaluation proposed by Education Commissioner Cerf and the NJDOE. My conclusion?
I'll have more to say this week in greater detail, but it really all comes down to these points:
- The proposals will put even more emphasis on standardized testing, further narrowing the curriculum. These tests have never been properly vetted and cost the state millions of dollars to produce, administer, and score. And only a fraction of the total teacher corps teaches a "tested" subject anyway, leading to spearate and unequal evaluation systems.- The state will use a system called Student Growth Percentiles to evaluate teachers. But even the "inventor" of SGPs admits they cannot determine a teacher's effectiveness!
- When Senator Teresa Ruiz introduced the TEACHNJ act, she said she wanted to empower principals. Yet these changes would do the opposite: they will force principals to act even when they would rather not.
The code changes will be rolled out in a series of presentations around the state over the next month. There is