Recommends permanent elimination of SGOs and creation of implementation working group
The New Jersey Educator Evaluation Review Task Force today submitted its report to Gov. Phil Murphy. The 13 members of the task force, representing NJEA, other education stakeholder groups, the Legislature and the governor’s office, worked tirelessly all summer to deliver this report by the Sept. 30 deadline set by the Legislature. You can read the joint letter released today by several of the organizations, which highlights our main recommendations.
The task force was created last spring as a result of legislation supported by NJEA members. It was part of a larger campaign by NJEA to reform the state’s evaluation system to reduce the amount of time spent on evaluation and the unnecessary paperwork burdening educators across New Jersey. A particular focus was on permanently eliminating student growth objectives (SGOs), which have already been suspended this year for tenured teachers while a review of the evaluation system is undertaken.
NJEA Vice President Steve Beatty served as one of NJEA’s three representatives on the task force. He released this statement, lauding the work of the task force so far.
“I’m pleased that we have completed this important first step in the process. Our report contains a number of critical recommendations, including the permanent elimination of SGOs, among other measures, to move beyond a compliance-centered approach and embrace a system that values innovation, collaboration and the pursuit of educational excellence.
“Very critically, the task force report says that we should continue our collaborative work beyond this initial effort. It’s not enough to study evaluation. We need to fix evaluation! That is why the task force’s cornerstone recommendation is to convene a working group to support the implementation of all these proposals.
“I want to thank Dayna Orlak, chair of NJEA’s Certification, Evaluation and Tenure Committee and Elisabeth Yucis, NJEA PDII associate director, who joined me on the task force to make sure the voices of NJEA members were heard in every discussion and reflected in every recommendation. They will continue to serve in their roles as we move forward.
“We are excited to continue this work in the coming year. We will help guide New Jersey toward an evaluation system that works for all members and ultimately makes our schools, our staff and our students more successful.”
To assist in that work still to come, NJEA will be creating an internal workgroup of members. Those members will be drawn from around the state and will represent the diversity of members who are covered by our evaluation system. They will help guide our next steps with the task force and help shape the future of educator evaluation in New Jersey.