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Press Release 3-3-11: Governor Christie Welcomes Recommendations of the New Jersey Educator Effectiveness Task Force as Guide for Reform to Put Results for Children First
The report is available in full at: http://www.state.nj.us/education/educators/effectiveness.pdf
Star Ledger ‘Gov. Christie's task force report reveals teacher, principal evaluations should tie to student success’
The Record ‘Christie task force proposes teacher evaluations based largely on test scores’
Nj.com ‘NJEA officials warn against N.J. education chief's plan to tie test scores to teacher evaluations’
Governor Christie Welcomes Recommendations of the New Jersey Educator Effectiveness Task Force as Guide for Reform to Put Results for Children First
The report is available in full at: http://www.state.nj.us/education/educators/effectiveness.pdf
For Immediate Release Contact: Michael Drewniak
Trenton, NJ – Governor Chris Christie today welcomed the recommendations of the New Jersey Educator Effectiveness Task Force as a blueprint to remaking public education in the state and refocusing the fundamental goals of the system to center on high student achievement and results for children. Established by Executive Order No. 42, the nine-member Task Force was charged with studying and developing recommendations to guide the creation of a fair and transparent system of educator evaluations, centering on student learning and achievement and demonstrated practices of effective teachers and administrators.
“The first step toward driving innovation and excellence in our public schools and expanding opportunity to every New Jersey child is making accountability and performance the foundation of educator evaluations. The most important factor in a child’s education is the effectiveness of their teacher, yet our system is biased away from accountability and measurements of how well instructors are performing or how well children are learning,” said Governor Christie. “If we are to succeed in delivering real educational opportunity to every child in New Jersey and finally closing our achievement gap, we cannot ignore performance or avoid accountability any longer.
“With a strong, student-centered foundation, we can achieve real reform to make educator effectiveness and student achievement the driving forces behind public education – rewarding excellent teachers who are getting positive results in the classroom and removing teachers who don’t. This report provides a roadmap to make these common sense reforms a reality, to challenge the status quo and to move the system toward the mutual goals of tangibly valuing our best teachers and excellent results for children.”
The Task Force’s report and recommendations are broken into four sections:
· Recommendations for a New Teacher Evaluation System;
· Recommendations for a New Principal Evaluation System;
· Other recommendations for the State to Set Positive Conditions For Successful Implementation Through Related Policies and Activities; and
· Next Steps to Begin the Process of Achieving Reform.
Recommendations Concerning Teacher Evaluations
The Task Force recommends the development of a new teacher evaluation system that is based entirely on student learning. All measures used to assess effectiveness should be linked to achievement. Initially, it would comprise equal parts teacher practice (inputs) and direct measures of student achievement (outputs). Over time, however, the Task Force encourages the state to increase the percentage of the evaluation contributed by measures of student achievement. Through these evaluations, teachers would be graded under four categories: Highly Effective, Effective, Partially Effective, and Ineffective.
· Measures of Student Achievement. Fifty percent of a teacher’s overall evaluation should be based on direct measures of student achievement as demonstrated by assessments and other evaluations of student work. The Task Force recommends that the student achievement portion of the evaluation be comprised of two required components and one optional component.
The largest required component (70% - 90%) would be an individual teacher’s contribution to his/her students’ progress on a statewide assessment. The other required component would be a state-approved, school-wide student performance measure (10%). A third, optional component, would be another state-approved measure of performance (0% - 20).
Ø Measures of student growth. These are defined measures of student achievement and progress based on statewide assessments. Growth measures are preferable to raw attainment measures because they account for a student’s academic starting point and give credit for progress made during the school year. The Task Force recommends that the state develop assessments capable of generating growth scores in as many additional subjects and grades as appropriate and financially feasible so growth scores can be calculated for more teachers beyond what is available with current assessments. This work should be done in partnership with districts, teachers, subject matter experts, and others.
Ø School-wide performance measure. The Task Force recommends that a total school student performance measure comprise 10% of the student achievement portion This measure could be a school-wide aggregation of all students’ growth on state assessments. Alternatively, teachers could share credit for meeting a school-specific goal. A school-specific goal would reflect an area of need identified by the school or district and approved for use by both the Commissioner and district superintendents.
Ø Other measures of student performance. The Task Force recommends that districts be permitted to choose one or more additional measures of student achievement from a list of state-approved measures. Such measures might include student performance on nationally-normed assessments or State-mandated end-of-course tests. These measures could comprise up to 20% of the achievement portion of the evaluation.
· Measures of Teacher Practice. The measures of teacher practice should be based on clear performance standards that define effective teaching. The Task Force recommends that New Jersey use the new national core standards, reviewed and adapted as needed, as the basis for teacher evaluations.
Ø Once clear standards have been established, measurement tools are needed to collect and review evidence to determine if teachers are meeting the standards. The Task Force recommends the use of one high-quality state-approved observation protocol and at least one additional state-approved tool to assess teacher practice.
Ø The Task Force recommends that the observation tool comprise at least half of the weight within the teacher practice section, accounting for 50%-95% of this component. One or more additional measurement tools would comprise the remaining 5%-50%. Districts would select from a list of Department of Education approved observation and measurement tools.
Recommendations Concerning Principal Evaluations
School leaders play a crucial role in raising student achievement. According to research, principal and teacher quality account for nearly 60% of a school’s total impact on student achievement, with principals alone accounting for 25%. The influence of school leaders is so significant because of their enormous contributions to school-wide success conditions. Key among these contributions are the influence and role in decisions directly related to promoting teacher effectiveness, such as hiring, professional development, evaluation, retention, and dismissal.
As with the teacher evaluations recommendations, the Task Force recommends that the new principal evaluation system have the same four categories of: Highly Effective, Effective, Partially Effective, and Ineffective.
Further, the Task Force recommends that the new principal evaluation be comprised of the following components with the following weights: Measures of effective practice: 40%; Differential retention of effective teachers (hiring and retaining effective teachers and exiting poor performers): 10%; and Measures of student achievement: 50%.
· Measures of Leadership Practice. The Task Force recommends that New Jersey adopt the updated Educational Leadership Policy Standards: ISLLC 2008, and that the Department of Education develop or adopt statewide performance indicators to establish clear and consistent expectations for all principals, across districts. The ISLLC standards have been adopted by most states, are widely accepted by the profession, and serve as a credible and useful foundation for principal evaluations. New Jersey currently uses ISLLC 2003 standards in accreditation, licensing and professional development, but not as a foundation for principal evaluations.
· Retention of Effective Teachers. The principal’s success in building and maintaining a high-quality faculty, with effective teachers in the classroom, is critical to student achievement and school success. Differential retention of effective teachers means hiring and retaining effective teachers and exiting poor performers. The Task Force recommends that differential retention of effective teachers contribute 10% of the principal evaluation. The following indices should be used to measure differential retention:
Ø Principal’s effectiveness in improving teacher effectiveness;
Ø Principal’s effectiveness in recruiting and retaining effective teachers; and
Ø Principal’s effectiveness in exiting ineffective teachers.
It is critical to note that principals can only be judged against this measure if they are given a clear role in teacher hiring, organizing professional development, dismissing ineffective teachers, and more. Reforms to further empower principals in this regard should be pursued.
· Measures of Student Achievement. The Task Force recommends that a principal’s evaluation be based substantially on empirical measures of student learning. Two different measures of achievement are recommended to be included in the principal’s evaluation: aggregated student growth on standardized assessments and “school-specific goals.”
Ø Ultimately, principals are responsible for their faculty and staff, and therefore the cumulative results in their school. Principals should be evaluated on the aggregated growth of all students on statewide assessments for all subjects and grades. This measure should comprise 35% of the total evaluation.
Ø Every principal should also be measured on at least one school-specific goal, such as high school graduation rate increase. A school-specific goal would reflect an area of need identified by the school or district and should be approved by the Commissioner of Education. This measure or combination of measures would comprise 15% of the total evaluation.
Setting Conditions for Success
In order to maximize the positive influence of these new evaluation frameworks, the Task Force has provided recommended related policies and activities the State should simultaneously pursue. These “Conditions for Success,” will lay the foundation and build the support structure for this new system. This list of issues to consider include the following: training for those conducting observations, informing educators of the new system’s components and implications, ensuring high-quality data systems, continuously monitoring the system’s effects after implementation, and more.
Next Steps to Begin the Process of Achieving Reform
The Task Force has identified a number of additional activities to be pursued over the next several months to move forward the implementation of education reform in New Jersey. This includes soliciting feedback from the State Board of Education and other education experts and stakeholders; further study of appropriate performance measures for teachers of special populations and non-tested subjects and grades; and developing recommendations for implementing the new evaluation system, including the possible use of pilot programs.
In addition to its chairman Brian Zychowsky, Superintendent of Schools in North Brunswick Township, other members of the Task Force included: Derrell Bradford, Executive Director and Director of Communications for Excellent Education for Everyone (E3); Jesse Rector, Clinton Hill Campus President of North Star Academy Charter School; Ross Danis, Associate Dean of Education at Drew University; Donna Chiera, an Executive of the American Federation of Teachers and Special Education Resource Teacher; Rafael Fajardo, former President of the Elizabeth Board of Education; Rev. Edwin Leahy, Headmaster of St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark; Jane Cosco, retired teacher and Director of Operation Goody Bag; and PeggySue Juliano, Executive Board Member of the Lacy Township High School PTA.
The report is available in full at: http://www.state.nj.us/education/educators/effectiveness.pdf
Star Ledger ‘Gov. Christie's task force report reveals teacher, principal evaluations should tie to student success’
Published: Thursday, March 03, 2011, 1:18 PM Updated: Thursday, March 03, 2011, 3:53 PM
By Jarrett Renshaw/Statehouse Bureau
TRENTON — Decisions on whether to retain teachers and principals should be based on a statewide evaluation system that takes into account the success of their students, according to a task force report released today by Gov. Chris Christie.
The New Jersey Educator Effectiveness Task Force, a nine-member board that includes state and national experts along with two union representatives, spent the last five months drafting the report.
The state should develop an evaluation system that is based in part on student achievement on standardized tests, along with yet to be developed measures, the report states.
The evaluations should be used when making a decision on whether to retain a teacher or principal, the report said.
The New Jersey Education Association Wednesday issued a statement saying tying performance reviews to standardized test scores could narrow curriculum in schools and reinforce teaching for the sake of passing a test.
Christie noted that only 17 teachers in the past decade have been fired for ineffectiveness.
“That should tell you all you need to know,” Christie said in a morning news conference. “Everybody knows there is more than 17 incompetent teachers in the state of New Jersey.”
Christie said he will seek out stakeholders to get their input on the recommendations in the upcoming months and hopes to get a pilot program running by the fall. He said the complete program would be phased in over the next several years through a combination of legislation and changes in regulation.
Nj.com ‘NJEA officials warn against N.J. education chief's plan to tie test scores to teacher evaluations’
Published: Wednesday, March 02, 2011, 4:08 PM Updated: Wednesday, March 02, 2011, 6:16 PM
By Ted Sherman/The Star-Ledger
TRENTON— Tying test scores to teacher evaluations could narrow curriculums in schools and reinforce teaching for the sake of passing a test, the New Jersey Education Association argued today, saying that plans by the Christie Administration to impose performance reviews based on how well students do on standardized tests were unworkable.
Last month, acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf unveiled a five-point reform proposal that would abandon New Jersey’s teacher job guarantee program and replace it with an evaluation system rewarding educators for good student performance and working in at-risk schools
Under the plan, the state's public school teachers would be assessed and paid using a new rating system based in part on how their students do in the classroom.
But the NJEA, which is opposed to the Christie plan, said it had serious limitations. Citing experts at a recent symposium by the Educational Testing Service, union officials said current tests can do little to distinguish the performance of one teacher from another, and could also lead to the abandonment of non-tested subjects in favor of those that have consequences.
Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, said schools are already over-emphasizing standardized test-taking and preparation, to the point where “we’ve adopted a strategy that focuses on drilling basic skills and narrows the curriculum.”
At the same time, between 70 and 80 percent of teachers can’t currently be evaluated with test score-based models, said Arthur E. Wise, president emeritus of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. “It will take hundreds of millions of unbudgeted dollars to create tests for all subject areas and grades,” he remarked. “Are we ready to pay for them? What will we have to give up?”
Cerf, however, rejected the union’s arguments.
“There is a complete lack of sophistication in what they are saying,” he said. “They are just fundamentally opposed to having teachers accountable for student learning. And that’s not in the best interests of children.”
The acting commissioner said no one in the debate thinks test scores should be the sole determining factor of anything. “It’s just one component,” he said.
At the same time, he said while it is true that a significant number of teachers teach in non-tested subjects, that is not a reason to do nothing. “When there are no tests, then obviously you don’t use test scores to evaluate,” said Cerf.
As for the possibility of abandoning curriculum subjects in non-tested areas, he called the thought simply absurd.
“The way the NJEA plays this game, they articulate and knock down straw men,” he said.
Union officials claim the testing models under consideration are unreliable.
According to Sean Corcoran, a researcher and assistant professor at New York University, the best the current testing models can do is identify those teachers who are systematically very high or very low performing after multiple years of observation. “Didn’t we already know who these teachers are?” he asked.
The testing models additionally do not take into account the fact that a great deal of a teacher’s efforts in some highly mobile districts are spent on students who aren’t there when the test is given, said Henry Braun of Boston College, who added that if the point is to differentiate among teachers, the testing models do “a really bad job because most teachers are not really different from the average.”
NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said the association believes student test scores have a place in the evaluation process, but said they should not play a determining role in personnel decisions.
“There are a lot of flashing yellow lights suggesting policymakers should proceed with caution before putting too much emphasis on test score improvement,” she said. “An over-emphasis on improving test scores will lead to even more ‘teaching to the test.”
The Record ‘Christie task force proposes teacher evaluations based largely on test scores’
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Last updated: Thursday March 3, 2011, 5:14 PM
BY LESLIE BRODY
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
As much as 45 percent of a teacher's evaluation could be based on how much her students improve on statewide tests under a task force proposal released Thursday by Governor Christie.
The report’s detailed recommendations for new evaluations drew immediate fire from the state’s largest teacher’s union, which argues that tying personnel decisions to test scores will lead to a massive explosion of testing and penalize teachers with the most challenging students.
Read the report
Click here to read the full report
Christie, who calls the current tenure system broken, wants to use more rigorous evaluations to promote good teachers and principals and dismiss poor ones. He called the task force’s 44-page report a “really solid step in the right direction” though he might tweak elements of it.
The governor said the New Jersey Education Association’s objections to using student tests to grade teachers reflect its outdated, selfish mission. The union’s “charge is to protect the worst teachers and they know the worst teachers will be outed if… test scores are put out there as part of the evaluation process,” he said.
The report says accurate teacher evaluations are the “cornerstone” of efforts to hone their skills, help children learn and close the achievement gap between at-risk students and more privileged peers.
As much as 45 percent of a teacher's evaluation could be based on how much her students improve on statewide tests.
"Evaluations that fail to account for differences in effectiveness are unfair to families and their children," the report says. "But they are also unfair to the adults working in our schools. These professions will never receive the respect they deserve if we continue to treat teachers and administrators like they are machines on an assembly line instead of the highly skilled professionals they are."
The report recommends that a teacher's evaluation be composed of two equal parts; half would be measures of student learning and half would be measures of how a teacher does his work.
The half of an overall evaluation based on student growth would have several ingredients. By far, the most important would be growth on her students’ statewide tests, which would account for 35 to 45 percent of the total evaluation. Another ingredient would be a schoolwide indicator that teachers share credit for, such as a boost in graduation rates. A final, optional ingredient could be another achievement measure, such as success on an end-of-course biology exam.
The other half of the overall evaluation would use a state-approved observation protocol and at least one additional tool to judge whether teachers are using the best practices. The education commissioner would develop a menu of options for these tools, and the task force recommends that he consider waivers for districts that ask to use their own for this element.
The NJEA has charged for months that the task force was a "sham" and the governor's office told them what to advise.
Brian Zychowski, chair of the task force and North Brunswick schools superintendent, countered “there was no political interference whatsoever” during the nine-member group’s five months of research, interviews with experts and deliberations.
On Wednesday, as a preemptive strike, the NJEA reiterated its own longstanding critique of complex statistical models that try to isolate a teacher’s effect on students. The union cites extensive studies finding these models are deeply flawed, and says putting too much pressure on test results will undermine collaboration and narrow the curriculum.
“Parents, watch out,” warned NJEA spokesman Steve Baker Thursday. “If you thought your students were being tested too much now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Some independent researchers and school superintendents agree with the union’s concerns, and say test data should be used to help staff tackle weaknesses but not for removing teachers.
Bruce Baker, a Rutgers University professor who has written about growth models in his blog, School Finance 101, criticized the task force report.
"Forcing reading and math teachers to be evaluated by measures over which they have limited control, and measures that jump around significantly from year to year and disadvantage teachers in more difficult settings isn't likely to make New Jersey's best and brightest jump at the chance to teach in Newark, Camden or Jersey City," he said by email, "Even if the current system of teacher evaluation is less than ideal, it doesn't mean that we should jump to adopt metrics that are as problematic as these."
The task force acknowledged the limitations of so-called "growth models" for measuring individual teachers' influence on students; "We believe that they provide important, if not perfect, information. When used in conjunction with other measures, growth can tell us a great deal."
Acting Commissioner Christopher Cerf took pains at the governor’s press conference on the report to express “deep appreciation for the extraordinary teaching force” in New Jersey. Cerf said improving evaluations “should not be threatening” and in coming weeks he would ask educators for more input on the proposals.
Christie said he would give Cerf freedom to impose new evaluation tools through regulations, while tenure reform plans require legislation.
The task force report said the education department would be able to tie teachers to student growth measures by the fall of 2012, for teachers in the tested subjects of math and language arts in grades 4 to 8. It also suggested developing assessments for subjects that currently have no state tests, and possibly phasing in new evaluations with pilot projects.
The report also detailed the makeup of evaluations for principals; 40 percent on measures of effective practice, 50 percent on student achievement, and 10 percent on how well they keep good teachers and remove unsuccessful ones.
NJEA officials were not given a seat on the task force, although the governor did appoint a retired teacher who said she was a member but not active in the union.
Asked whether the NJEA would be invited to weigh in on the evaluation proposals, Christie reiterated his insistence that he would meet with union leaders only after they fire the Bergen County union chief, Joseph Coppola. A year ago Coppola was the top county union official to sign an internal memo that made a joking reference to a death wish for the governor. Coppola has apologized but did not step down; indeed, he won reelection last spring.
E-mail: brody@northjersey.com
