NJ Educator Effectiveness Task Force

The Educator Effectiveness Task Force was established in October, of 2010. Nine members were selected with experience in and knowledge of education policy, administration, and teaching. The Task Force was given the job of coming up with an educator evaluation system based on measures of effectiveness. The Task Force is a way to bring more accountability to the schools and their teachers. According to the Executive Order, its recommendations were to include measures of student achievement; demonstrate practices of effective teachers and leaders; and weights for the various components. “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. “
The teacher evaluation focuses on two specific aspects: student achievement and teacher practice. Student achievement will be determined by assessments and other evaluations of student work that will show student growth. The teachers will be evaluated by student performance mostly through state tests and the other half based on classroom observations and other more subjective measures. The next step is to evaluate the principal. They evaluate them on the criteria of: quality of leadership, scores, and their staff.
The New Jersey Educator Effectiveness Task Force Interim Report was released in March of 2011. The Task Force comes from 3 guiding principles: 1. The needs of students are paramount. 2. All children can achieve at the highest level. 3. We believe in the efficiency of the educator. The tasks force expects the best from children no matter where they begin. As long as they are equipped with the right skills they will be okay in this world. Some argue that this statement is not fair. A child’s neighborhood, race, and family income are determining factors and that so much from public schools can be anticipated because of these attributes. The report also highlights that educators have the power to inspire, engage, and widen opportunities for students if equipped with the right skills, knowledge, and temperament and given the appropriate supports.
One of the biggest drawbacks from this report is teacher ratings are inconsistent from year to year, and are easy cases of misclassification. Some students in higher income brackets learn over the summer and are put into educational programs where they see more growth over their peers in the summer. This shows a difference in annual testing data and does not make it a useful tool. There is currently no good solution for this. Teacher evaluations, tenure decisions and dismissal decisions are based on scores that may be influenced by which student a teacher serves discourages teachers to serve students with the greatest needs, disruptive students, or those with disruptive family backgrounds. These factors cannot be measured by variables. Establishing a system where teacher advancement becomes a risk where a teacher’s career can be ended randomly is not the way to go. The Task Force may have the right ideas in mind when trying to improve the educational system. But, their practices can use some work.