News Brief

01/03/13

View From the Top: Cerf and Ruiz Talk Education 2013

NJ Spotlight (01/03/2013) Mooney, John

New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf spoke with NJ Spotlight about education reform priorities for 2013, including teacher evaluation systems, turnaround strategies for troubled schools, and the introduction of new standards and assessments for students. "There is an enormous amount of implementation and execution work that has to be at the top of the list. It's one thing to announce them, as we did last year, but another to implement them. The major theme for 2013 will be to support districts as we move through that implementation," he said. The State Education Department is tasked with creating an implementation plan for the phase-in of teacher evaluations as part of the new tenure reform law. Cerf also that turnaround strategies for low performing schools are ongoing, and the department plans to install Regional Achievement Centers throughout the state to assist those schools. The first parts of the national Common Core State Standards are already showing up in school curricula and in this spring's administration of the New Jersey Assessments of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK). In the 2014-15 school year, there will be new tests in place under the national Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which will take place several times per year and entirely online. Cerf said PARCC is still working on the details of how to roll out the tests, what accommodations will be made for students, and what technology schools will be required to have. In 2013, Cerf indicated a task force could be developed to examine teacher preparation, including requirements of different programs and the development of a system for tracking whether some prepare teachers better than others. "For the districts doing the hiring, we need have some ways of evaluating the effectiveness of graduates," he said. "Any respectable system will be mindful of all aspects of the continuum. What are we doing to recruit talent, and what are we doing to make sure they will be successful ... Everything related to teacher preparation will be on the table."

 

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