Subject: (GSCS has been invited) Invitation from Commissioner Schundler for Nominations for the Educational Effectiveness Evaluation Committee "I would like to invite you to nominate a member of your organization to serve on a new committee..."

Njspotlight.com “Educators are Evaluated Changing the Rules on How NJ Ed’ What does it take to decide how NJ educators are paid and tenured? Start with a 37-member committee print | email | share By John Mooney, August 3 in Education |1 Comment How do you judge a good teacher or principal? First, you form a committee, a really big committee. Related Links Education Effectiveness Evaluation Committee Letter and Timeline Race to the Top Can Speed Change, But Change is Coming Regardless At least that's the tack New Jersey is taking as it launches an ambitious plan to revamp how public school educators are evaluated, compensated and tenured. Detailed in its application for federal Race to the Top money, New Jersey’s new system would include for the first time using student achievement measures like test scores to judge teachers and administrators across the state. The system will also include measures of agreed-upon “effective practices.” But as the first step Education Commissioner Bret Schundler has invited prominent state groups and others to nominate members to the new Educational Effectiveness Evaluation Committee, the high-stakes group of no less than 37 people charged with recommending how exactly the system will work. “The EEEC will explore teacher and leader evaluation models and ultimately propose a statewide evaluation system that will inform decisions about various school policies, including professional development, compensation, bonuses, and the awarding of tenure,” said Schundler in a July 23 invitation letter. Running the Numbers Actually, the first task may be determining how the committee will work. Sixteen of the 37 will be from the education groups: one each from the state’s teachers unions; two each from business, higher education and the legislature. Another 12 will come from the school districts themselves, with an eye on a cross-section of schools, positions and experience. And the last nine will be “invitation of the commissioner,” including experts in policy, research and school culture. “This is a really important project, and as an association, we certainly stand behind the effort,” said Debra Bradley, chief lobbyist for the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association. “Not only does it affect our members [in their evaluations], but we’re the ones who are going to have to implement it,” she said. The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s dominant teachers union, is cautious about what may come out of the project, especially if there is heavy emphasis on standardized test scores. The NJEA has been in frequent battle with Gov. Chris Christie, including over the filing of this very application. But its leaders said yesterday the union looks forward to participating. “The devil will be in the details of how this is pursued,” said Michael Cohan, director of professional development for the NJEA. “But if it’s good people with an open mind and plans to approach it objectively, the institution at large can only benefit.” According to the plan, the nominations are due go back to Schundler by Aug. 13, with the committee set to hold its first meeting in September. The committee’s opening charge will be to determine the evaluation system for teachers in math and language arts, subjects in which students are tested by the state at least seven times and in which student achievement measures will count for “at least 50 percent” of an educator’s grade, according to the proposal. A Statewide System of Evaluation The first draft of recommendations are to be ready by January, undergo further review by the state Board of Education and the commissioner and be ready for testing in pilot districts in the spring and fall 2011. The plan is for a statewide evaluation system to be ready for the fall of 2012. The plan lays a separate path for determining how evaluations will work for teachers in non-tested subjects like social studies and the arts, given there will not be the same ready-made measures as math and language arts. The first testing of those teacher evaluations will begin in the fall of 2012. Bradley of the principals group said she hopes the committee will rely heavily on the word of those in the schools. “As much as the stakeholder groups are important, you need the people who do this for a living, who know what’s practical and what’s valuable in how you evaluate staff,” she said. The separate track for the teachers in tested subjects points to the likelihood that the state’s standardized tests will be a significant piece of the formula, a prospect that worries others who are participating “We’re just not sure that the tests are all that valid,” said Cohan of the NJEA. “And they say at least 50 percent. What you can end up doing is just teaching to the test, rather than helping the students master the necessary skills. That’s what concerns us.” But there’s general agreement that student achievement is to be codified into the process as never before, whether the groups like it or not, and it will be up to 37 people -- not to mention Schundler and Christie -- to determine how that will happen. “There are clearly places out there where there have been good conversations around student achievement,” Cohan said. “Our greatest hope is that we can focus this group on those conversations so we have a positive impact on practitioners.” Subject: Invitation for Nominations for the Educational Effectiveness Evaluation Committee (EEEC) Date: July 23, 2010 Dear I would like to invite you to nominate a member of your organization to serve on a new committee that will develop measures of effectiveness for teachers and school leaders. The Educational Effectiveness Evaluation Committee (EEEC) will be comprised of education practitioners, technical experts and representatives of stakeholder groups. Abundant research shows that highly effective teachers and school leaders have more impact on student learning than any other factor controlled by school systems. We believe that if we improve teacher and leader assessment, we can improve the efficacy of our teacher and leadership corps – and the educational achievement of our students. The EEEC will explore teacher and leader evaluation models and ultimately propose a statewide evaluation system that will inform decisions about various school policies, including professional development, compensation, bonuses and the awarding of tenure. The EEEC’s first task is to present draft recommendations to the Commissioner of Education by January 2011 regarding the best way to measure the effectiveness of teachers and school leaders, based on defined parameters. The effectiveness recommendations will include: 1) which measures of student achievement -- representing at least 50% of the teacher/school leader evaluation-- should be used for evaluating educator performance, and how each measure should be weighted 2) which practices of effective teachers and school leaders should comprise the remaining basis for such evaluations, and how these measures of effective practices should be weighted Please see the attached action plan for a more detailed listing of tasks and time commitments. I have also enclosed a summary of the composition of the EEEC. Please submit your nomination to me by August 13, including name, contact information and vitae. Members of the EEEC will be approved by the Governor by September and the committee will convene its first meeting shortly thereafter. Best regards, Bret Schundler Njspotlight.com ‘Unlikely Ally Supports ELC in Abbott Challenge’ Well-off Montgomery school district, facing more than $5 million in state aid cuts, files amicus brief print | email | share By John Mooney, August 4 in Education |Post a Comment Related Links Montgomery Certification ‘Highest Achievement, Lowest Spending’ -- Administration Looks to Models in Funding Review It’s not the usual alliance in New Jersey’s Abbott v. Burke school funding debate: a wealthy suburban district standing side-by-side in court with the group that has represented poor urban schoolchildren. But the district of Montgomery in Somerset County has asked to file a friend of the court brief with the latest challenge by the Education Law Center in the Abbott equity case, now back before the state Supreme Court for the 21st time. QSAC Scores Their request still pending before the court, Montgomery officials argue that the ELC’s legal challenge to Gov. Chris Christie and the Legislature’s state aid cuts also speaks to a wealthy district like their own, which lost more than $5 million in state aid under Christie, one of dozens of suburban districts hit hard by the cuts. “What do we have to lose at this point?” said Earl Kim, superintendent of Montgomery schools. “And as a district, we stand a lot to gain if the formula is funded, even partially.” Montgomery is the only individual district to request to file an amicus brief in the case. A coalition of special education advocates is also filing. The court has yet to schedule arguments in the case or even formally agree to hear the motion. The ELC, the Newark group that has led the Abbott litigation, is contending the aid cuts this summer are a violation of the court’s most recent Abbott ruling in 2009. That ruling found the current funding formula met constitutional requirements in providing equal opportunity to a “thorough and efficient” education, but only if fully funded. The Christie administration has argued that the state’s fiscal crisis left it no choice but to make reductions in state aid, and that it did so equitably across all districts. The cuts were limited to no more than 5 percent of a given district’s overall budget. For some suburban districts, that meant virtually all of their aid. For many urban districts, it was a far smaller share. While the Abbott case has historically focused on urban schoolchildren, the ELC’s latest argument resonated in Montgomery, Kim said. Under the intricacies of the School Funding Reform Act, the superintendent said his district would appear a model of efficiency, spending less than deemed adequate by the state, while still showing high achievement levels. He pointed out that Montgomery is one of the districts that state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler has invited to a closed meeting of select superintendents next week to discuss their efficiencies as basis for a potential statewide model. “That’s why we felt so strongly,” Kim said. “We were so hurt fiscally. Literally $5.5 million taken from us in a few months’ time, and while that may not seem a lot in a $70 million budget, it’s huge cuts in programs and service.” He said three classroom teachers and a social worker position were eliminated outright, and that support staff were reduced to part-time positions to save on health benefits. In additional, elementary school world language was cut back, and middle school sports will be paid through user fees, officials said. “It shows that the state’s failure to fund the formula isn’t having an impact on just poor urban districts,” said Elizabeth Athos, senior attorney with the ELC. “It will provide the court a fuller picture of what is happening statewide. Not just Abbott districts have a stake in this.”