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NJ Spotight - Teacher Evaluation Rules Will Change Only Slightly Next Year, State Decides...Portion of evaluation that’s based on student test scores will remain at 30 percent for 2014-2015
Star Ledger - NJ receives 38 applications for new charter schools
NJ Spotlight Opinion: Can Traditional Schools Learn to Play Well With Charters
NJ Spotlight - Teacher Evaluation Rules Will Change Only Slightly Next Year, State Decides
John Mooney | April 9, 2014
Portion of evaluation that’s based on student test scores will remain at 30 percent for 2014-2015
With plenty of questions still swirling around this year’s planned launch of the new teacher-evaluation system, the Christie administration has told school districts that little – if anything – will change for next year.
The state Department of Education alerted districts yesterday that the basic components of the system used to determine each teacher’s rating will not change in 2014-15.
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The main component of that system has to do with how teachers are rated in relation to student performance, either by test score progress or based on more specific individual assessments known as student growth outcomes (SGOs). This year, teachers whose students take the standardized tests in language arts and math will see 30 percent of their ratings developed off their students’ progress on those scores.
The memo sent to districts yesterday said those different weights will not change for next year, with 30 percent of those evaluations again based on the student test results.
The administration has the option of setting different weights each year, and under its regulations must do so by April 15.
“New Jersey has had two years of pilot programs, we’re seven months into the statewide initiative, we’ve talked to thousands of educators in the field, we’re offering support and guidance to every school district, and we’re making minor adjustments to improve the system,” said Michael Yaple, the department’s spokesman.
“What we’re not doing is making any knee-jerk reactions,” he said. “We have a very thoughtful, deliberative process, and we’re staying the course.”
Still, the decision to stick with the status quo next year comes in the face of questions and concerns about how well the teacher-evaluation system has worked in its first year.
The New Jersey Education Association, the teachers union, has cited a number of problems, and the state’s principals association has expressed concerns that the state is not being flexible enough. Several leading legislators have also expressed some concerns about the new evaluations, but actual bills to amend the requirements have been slow in coming.
An added wild card is the state’s big change in its student testing next year, starting with the online PARCC tests in grades 3-11 and expanding the number of teachers who will see test performance become part of their ratings.
“We will have apples and oranges in the assessments to how teachers are doing, and that will be 30 percent of their ratings?” said Steve Wollmer, the NJEA’s communications director. “We’re disappointed in the decision.”
The arrival of a new education commissioner, David Hespe, has also raised the possibility of some changes, but Wollmer said he isn’t holding out much hope on that front.
“It may still happen at some point, but based on this, we’re disappointed,” he said.
The Christie administration has made some adjustments, however, saying it is responding to some of the concerns.
One is the addition of an appeals process – proposed to the State Board of Education last week -- that will give teachers an added avenue to contest the procedures followed in their evaluations, although they won’t be able to appeal the ultimate findings.
The administration also released a guide based on “lessons from educators” from districts that it said could be useful in providing examples of best practices.
Assistant Education Commissioner Peter Shulman, in testifying before the board, tried to calm any predictions of turmoil – and more specifically, teachers facing the prospect of being fired across the state -- in the first year of evaluations.
“When we come to the conclusion of this year, we will see the overwhelming majority of teachers who are not rated ineffective, the overwhelming majority of teachers who are not in jeopardy of losing their jobs,” he told the board.
‘The more we can move away from (the punitive side) and see this as more about supporting educators, the better off we will be,” he said.
Star Ledger - NJ receives 38 applicatio
ns for new charter schools
By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
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on April 09, 2014 at 6:30 AM, updated April 09, 2014 at 6:34 AM
more education
State officials have received 38 applications for new charter schools, including proposals for schools with an emphasis on the fashion industry, health and technology, and business skills, according to a list released by the Department of Education.
The 38 applications match the number submitted last year. State officials eventually approved six.
More than half the applications are for schools in urban centers including Newark, Trenton, Camden and Jersey City, where families are seeking alternatives to low-performing, traditional public schools.
Gov. Chris Christie is a proponent of charter schools and the sector has grown significantly under his watch. There are 87 charter schools in New Jersey, according to the New Jersey Charter Schools Association.
Charter schools are publicly funded and privately operated.
Twelve applications in this round are for new schools in Essex County. Elsewhere, four are for schools in Plainfield and North Plainfield. In addition, there are 12 applications for regional schools that would draw students from up to seven municipalities.
"I’m inspired by so many folks, educators, community groups who are willing to dedicate their lives to ensuring children have an opportunity for a great education," said Carlos Perez, CEO of the New Jersey Charter Schools Association, which hosted its sixth annual conference Tuesday in Atlantic City. "The application progress is difficult and it shows a commitment from across the state."
More than half the applications are for elementary grades. Three are for middle school students and two are for both middle and high school students. Thirteen applications are for high schools. A few of the applications don’t stipulate a grade or location.
Seven of the proposed schools will emphasize technology, science, math or a combination, and four schools have an international focus.
There are two proposed business academies — one in Orange and one that would serve seven Bergen County towns — and five college prep programs in East Orange/Orange/Irvington, Elizabeth, Paterson, Camden and Jersey City.
An arts academy is proposed in Bloomfield, and an alternative education school is proposed in Orange.
Several applications come from previously rejected applicants, including the Pearls of Wisdom Charter School in East Orange and Irvington. Applicant Stephanie Barnes, a teacher who grew up in East Orange, said she wants to offer a quality alternative for the families who live in the area. She seeks to open a school for 400 children in grades 5 through 8.
Belinda McGuire, a retired Newark Public Schools teacher, submitted an application for the Academy of Fashion Industry Careers Charter High School in Newark. She has been rejected three times.
A Department of Education spokesman said some applications may not be complete and thus do not proceed to the first round of review.
Applicants will learn by September if they have been approved.
NJ Spotlight Opinion: Can Traditional Schools Learn to Play Well With Charters?
By Laura Waters | April 9, 2014
It’s time to retire the rhetoric and help both types of schools do what they do best: educate our children
NJ Spotlight just reported that next year one out of four Newark public school students will opt to attend a charter school. Trenton Public Schools recently confirmed that a similar percentage of parents will decline placements in traditional districts and enroll their children in these independent public schools. Camden Public Schools officials predict that 25 percent of their 15,000 students will do the same, as some of the most highly-regarded charter organizations -- KIPP, Uncommon Schools, and Mastery -- prepare to open schools that offer promising educational alternatives.
Certainly, these past few weeks have been challenging to defenders of the old-school monopolistic model. After decades of adhering to a top-down bureaucratic paradigm, New Jersey is one of many states that is starting to develop a diversified model of education delivery. Instead of a one-size-fits-all system, we’re evolving toward a portfolio of options for students that includes both traditional schools and independent public charters.
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This shift presents a challenge to the New Jersey educational establishment. Can those invested in the old-school model find a way to embrace this upgraded network of public education that best serves the needs of children? Or will they get bogged down in the negative politics of resentment often ignited by institutional change and, not incidentally, the refiguring of balance sheets?
Last month Bob Braun, former columnist for the Star Ledger, harrumphed, “Not only should there be a moratorium on all new charter schools, all charter schools should be given notice they will be closed or converted to tuition-based private schools within five to 10 years.” The leadership of New Jersey Education Association, which represents most of our fine educators, snarled, “today’s reformers have no loyalty to public education and what it stands for. Instead, market-based 'reforms' treat a school as a consumer choice. Some see the vast $600 billion system of public schools as a source of private profit.”
The disdain expressed toward charter schools by those resistant to change is reminiscent of the way national television networks reacted when confronted by HBO and Netflix: sneer at the upstarts and worry about market share.
Public education, of course, isn’t entertainment but our most important governmental function. Still, it’s not any more immune from resentment than any other enterprise facing an increasingly competitive environment. Next year one-fifth of Newark’s annual $900 million budget will go for tuition payments to charter schools; Trenton Public Schools is currently grappling with a $10.5 million hole in its budget; Camden Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard just announced plans to lay off 400 staff members and reconfigure school facilities to adapt to a declining enrollment.
NJEA peers at its prospective membership list (charter school teachers can unionize, but they don’t have to) and ponders declining revenues.
Several years ago the Center on Reinventing Public Education published a study that offers a scenario that focuses not on market share but children:
“As charter school continue to expand across the nation and especially when they serve large percentages of a community’s children, school districts and charter schools are increasingly choosing to abandon negative competition in favor of collaborative partnership. This is not to say that charter schools have moved from the margins to the mainstream or that they never face fierce opposition. But in a growing number of communities across America, the relationship between charter schools and districts is transforming, from the traditional paradigm of opposition, competition, and indifference to a partnership based on trust and collaboration through a shared mission, shared resources, and shared responsibility.”
So how we arrive at that that collaborative, trusting partnership and move away from the tired narrative of “opposition, competition, and indifference?”
First, New Jersey needs to be more transparent about the way it funds charter schools. A veritable tome of myth and innuendo impedes accountability. This lack of clarity fuels the resentment expressed by public districts, especially suburban ones, who view funding as a zero-sum game and struggle to sustain programming and payroll costs.
But don’t blame it all on the DOE. The state Legislature is complicit in this distrust through its apparent inability to update New Jersey’s 20-year-old charter school law. Lots of promises, no action. A recent proposal, courtesy of Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), didn’t even bother to address funding issues, which John Mooney described in these pages as a “glaring omission.” Get it done, and don’t leave out the hard parts.
And as long as we’re ascribing blame, charter schools themselves could do a far better job of publishing budgets, salaries, costs per pupil, and facilities costs (especially since New Jersey, contrary to best practices in charter school governance, declines to offer facilities aid). Additionally, charter school operators should take the lead in proposing shared-services agreements between traditional and independent schools. Potential areas of fiscal efficiency include collaborating on professional development for teachers and other staff members, sharing curricular materials, and finding economies in areas like building use, Web-based services, communications, bulk purchasing, and so on.
Times change. “House of Cards” and “Mad Men” win accolades; NBC and its brethren accept a differentiated field, and a new delivery model emerges that (mostly) produces mutual respect and even a few strategic partnerships. So let’s press the mute button on politically driven denunciations and work together on the shared mission of all public schools, traditional and charter: to provide great educational services for children.
