Christie Accepts Education Task Force Suggestions

New Jersey 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.

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