Don't Rush The New Teacher Evaluation, Crisfield Says

Millburn Superintendent of School Dr. James Crisfield wrote a to New Jersey Legislators Wednesday about the new statewide teacher evaluation system on NJSpotlight. The letter is as follows:

Dear New Jersey Legislators,

We need your help.

New Jersey’s public schools are suffering under the weight of the teacher evaluation system we are compelled to implement in September 2013. The timeframe currently required by statute is neither realistic nor fair. Quite frankly, it is creating a crisis where none exists.

There is an easy solution at hand.

All you need to do is support the resolution recently introduced by Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex) and Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex) that seeks to postpone the implementation of this system for one year.

Second, we need more time to explain the system to teachers and to train them on it. We have been working feverishly on that for this entire year, trying out things and seeking input from volunteers locally, but the final regulations that spell out all the details aren’t even out yet . . . and they’re not going to be out until October. It is just not fair to start evaluating somebody when the rules aren’t even finalized.

And speaking of fairness, there really needs to be another discussion about the efficacy of using student test scores to judge the effectiveness of a teacher. We’re moving so fast now that we don’t even have the opportunity to fully vet that very troubling (and in most educators’ opinion, highly flawed) aspect of the new system.

Continue reading on NJSpotlight.com.