Bill Text: NJ A2901 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Provides that teaching staff member's annual summative evaluation rating for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years will not include a student growth percentile; delays use of certain assessment.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-05-15 - Combined with A3081/990 (ACS) [A2901 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-A2901-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman TIMOTHY J. EUSTACE
District 38 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Provides that teaching staff member's annual summative evaluation rating for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years will not include a student growth percentile; delays use of certain assessment.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning certain testing and evaluation and supplementing P.L.2012, c.26 (C.18A:6-117 et al.) and chapter 7C of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. As used in this section, "student growth percentile" means a specific metric for measuring individual student progress on Statewide assessments by tracking how much a student's test scores have changed relative to other students Statewide with similar scores in previous years.
b. Notwithstanding the provisions of P.L.2012, c.26 (C.18A:6-117 et al.) or any other section of law or regulation to the contrary, the annual summative evaluation rating of a teaching staff member for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years shall not include any student growth percentile.
2. The Department of Education shall not administer any assessment developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or any similar assessment, in the 2014-2015 school year.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
P.L.2012, c.26 (C.18A:6-117 et al.), approved on August 6, 2012, established a new system of evaluation for teachers, principals, assistant principals, and vice-principals. The evaluation system was effective Statewide beginning in the 2013-2014 school year. Under that system, all teachers are evaluated based on multiple measures of teacher practice and student achievement. In the case of language arts and mathematics teachers, one of the measures of student achievement is the median "student growth percentile" that is calculated based on the performance of a teacher's students on the Statewide language arts or mathematics assessments. The "student growth percentile" is a metric that is used to track how much a student's test scores have changed relative to other students Statewide with similar scores in previous years. Student growth percentile is also a factor used in the evaluation of principals.
This bill provides that the annual summative evaluation rating of a teaching staff member for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years will not include any student growth percentile. The bill also provides that the Department of Education may not administer any assessment developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), or any similar assessment, in the 2014-2015 school year.
The delays in implementation established under the bill are appropriate in light of the fact that the curriculum in all school districts has only recently been adjusted to reflect the new Common Core State Standards; and the assessment developed by PARCC to measure student achievement of the standards will reflect not only a change in test content, but a change in the method of administering and completing the test via a computer. Students and teachers have not had an adequate period of time to adjust to the incorporation of these changes.
