FROM THE NJ SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION; Legislative Update: Senate Education Committee Discusses Common Core, PARCC and Teacher Evaluations On June 19, the Senate Education Committee held discussion on S-2154 (Van Drew), the Senate companion to A-3081 (Jasey) that creates an Education Reform Review Task Force; delays certain uses of PARCC assessments and temporarily prevents the use of SGPs (student growth percentiles) for teacher evaluations. The Assembly passed the bill 72-4 on June 16. The meeting began with a presentation from Dr. Bari Erlichson and Peter Shulman of the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE). Their presentation focused on updating committee members on what steps have been taken in preparation for PARCC testing and dispelling misunderstandings related to PARCC and the Common Core State Standards. They also noted that changes to the already agreed upon teacher evaluation system, such as the usage of SGPs, could jeopardize a waiver the U.S. Department of Education had granted, exempting New Jersey from the provisions of the federal ‘No Child Left Behind’ law. NJSBA testified in favor of the creation of an assessments review task force. As Michael Vrancik, NJSBA director of governmental relations, noted, it is important to garner input from the various members of the education community during the implementation process of these important reforms, and to be able to make changes where necessary. He expressed concerns similar to those of the NJDOE in the delayed use of SGPs and stated the planned teacher evaluation system should remain intact until we have an opportunity to evaluate and understand how the new system is working. Therefore, the use of standardized assessments and SGPs should continue to be components of the teacher and principal evaluation system. NJSBA is acutely aware of the technological challenges districts face in the PARCC testing. The Association has been working with the NJDOE and other partners on strategies to enable districts to acquire the necessary technology. Nonetheless, NJSBA supports a provision of A-3081 and S-2154 that would memorialize the temporary paper-and-pencil option for the exam. The Association’s understanding is that the state intends to offer that option to school districts even without this bill. Another bill, S-2176 (Ruiz) that creates a statewide commission to study the quality and effectiveness of all standardized assessments administered to K-12 students was also discussed. NJSBA supports this legislation. Additionally, the Senate Education Committee released three other bills on June 19. S-300 (Rice) establishes the New Jersey Out-of-School Time Advisory Commission to review before-school, after-school and summer programs, and appropriates $60,000 for that purpose. NJSBA supports the bill. Another bill, S-2058 (Lesniak) authorizes the education commissioner to create a pilot recovery high school that provides a high school education and a substance dependency plan of recovery to test the effectiveness of this model in the state. NJSBA supports this bill, which was released with a commitment from the sponsor to work with NJSBA staff before a vote by the full Senate. The committee also released S-235, which passed the full Senate on June 23, and is summarized below. On Monday, June 23, both the General Assembly and Senate held voting sessions. The following is a list of education-related bills passed by each house:
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:53:27 +0000
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