newjerseynewsroom.com

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Five public school teachers are among the 21 members of a new committee created to advise the New Jersey Department of Education on a controversial teacher evaluation program that is the centerpiece of Gov. Chris Christie education platform.

The Evaluation Pilot Advisory Committee will offer advise to the DOE over the course of the 2011-12 school year. Besides the teachers, the panel is composed of two school superintendents, three principals, two state DOE officials, two college representatives, and a representative from special education, school boards, the state school board, vocational schools, parents, non-public schools and charter schools

The committee also is expected to produce a recommendation for statewide rollout of a new teacher evaluation system for the 2012-13 school year. Additional, people representing the 11 school districts participating in a pilot teacher evaluation program and from persistently low performing districts that have received federal School Improvement Grant aid to implement change, will be added to the committee in the coming weeks.

On Sept. 1, the DOE department announced the 11 districts, including Newark, that are participating in the Excellent Educators for New Jersey (EE4NJ) teacher evaluation pilot program. The pilot districts were selected from among 31 applicants and will split $1.1 million in state aid School Improvement Grant schools and districts will also take part in the program with their federal funds.

“This pilot is an opportunity to work with educators across the state to develop a fair and meaningful evaluation system that will treat teachers like the professionals they are,” Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf said Friday. “And, the voice of educators is a crucial component in this development. The Evaluation Pilot Advisory Committee is another opportunity to ensure that we are working with educators from across the state as we create a better system."

Christie has been at odds with the New Jersey Education Association, the statewide teachers’ union, over the evaluation system. The NJEA argues that class test scores should not be part of an evaluation because factors such as a student’s home life are beyond the educator’s control.

The DOE solicited nominations for committee members from what is described as major stakeholder groups, and selected them as representing a wide cross-section of the New Jersey education landscape. Committee meetings will be held monthly at the DOE in Trenton. The first meeting was held Friday.

“Because teaching is an honored craft, we must ensure that we recognize and respect effective educators, support teachers in their efforts to continue to develop their skills, and ensure that those comparatively few individuals who are unable to improve no longer remain in the classroom," Cerf said. "This advisory committee will help to ensure that we fulfill this promise as we work to develop a new statewide evaluation system."

The committee members are:

Marie Bilik, director, New Jersey School Boards Association

Carl Blanchard, biology teacher, Franklin High School

Jeanne Delcolle, Burlington County Teacher of the Year, history teacher, Burlington County Institute of Technology