New Standards Reduce Weight of PARCC Scores on Teacher Evaluations
(TRENTON) – Assembly Education Committee Chair Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden/Burlington) issued the following statement Wednesday in response to new rules announced by the Murphy administration to reduce the weight of PARCC test scores on teacher evaluations:
“New Jersey has some of the most exceptional educators which is why our schools consistently rank among the best in the nation. However, without proper evaluations for teachers, it is much harder to ensure that our children are receiving the high quality education they deserve. While education has placed an overemphasis on standardized testing in recent years, these assessments still serve as a critical tool in gauging student growth, and are one of the only objective measures in assessing teacher performance. By reducing the use of Student Growth Percentile to just five percent of educator’s overall evaluation, we lose the ability to set strong statewide evaluation standards for teachers. As we move forward, we must examine the impact on overall student performance and continue to seek alternative objective measures for evaluating our teachers.”