Assembly to study teacher effectiveness

New ways to evaluate, prepare and mentor teachers are among the ideas included in a new report released by the Garden State Alliance for Strengthening Education, a coalition of school stakeholders that includes the New Jersey Education Association.

Assembly Speaker Vinnie Prieto (D-Secaucus) said the Assembly Education Committee will soon begin considering the 50-plus suggestions contained in the report.

"We have great schools in the state of New Jersey that have amazing teachers, but we could always do better," Prieto said.

Teacher evaluations remain a sensitive issue for the NJEA, which has often claimed the evaluations are too reliant on test scores. The organization says those scores do not constitute an accurate barometer for a teacher's effectiveness.

"Most recently, teacher effectiveness has been defined by reforms in very narrow terms, emphasizing things that are easy to measure whether they're important or not, and disregarding things that are hard to measure no matter how critical they are," said Wendell Steinhauer, NJEA president. "We believe teacher effectiveness is enhanced through policies that honor teachers, not bashing them."

In a teacher's initial years, mentoring, induction, professional learning and teacher leadership are critical. That's according to Pat Wright, executive director of the New Jersey Principles and Supervisors Association.

"Unfortunately, 40 percent of new teachers leave the profession in the first five years," Wright said.

The Assembly Education Committee will set a schedule to begin holding hearings, Prieto said. Assemblyman Pat Diegnan (D-South Plainfield) is chairman of the panel.

"We seem to be ignoring the obvious," Diegnan said. "The key to quality education is quality, well-prepared teachers."