Earlier this summer, the Legislature passed and Gov. Murphy signed an NJEA-backed law that continues the pause on student growth objectives (SGOs) for tenured educators. That pause will remain in place while the NJ Department of Education completes its works with stakeholder groups, including NJEA, on a pilot program to find a better, more efficient alternative.
This week, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) released new evaluation guidance for the coming school year. Called Educator Evaluation Guidance: Flexibilities and Best Practices, that guidance emphasizes the freedom and flexibility educators will have in the coming school year compared to the overburdensome SGO model of the past.
This is another important win for NJEA members, who have long understood that the SGO system was ineffective and far too time consuming. With this guidance, we can anticipate a much better, more productive evaluation process in the coming year and beyond, while educators finally have a voice in developing the new system.
NJEA will soon be releasing its own formal guidance document to help members better understand the NJDOE’s new expectations. Additionally, there will be mini-courses on the new NJDOE guidance presented at this week’s NJEA Summer Leadership Conference, as well as a webinar series in October that will be open to all interested NJEA members.
The NJEA guidance, as well as an invitation to the webinar series, will be shared in a future edition of the all-member Advocate’s Update email newsletter.