By Frank Mustac, Contributor
Months after the state Department of Education opted to make the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment more important to a teacher’s yearly evaluation, members of the Hopewell Valley Regional School District Board of Education released a joint statement against the move.
According to the statement, local officials were staunchly in opposition of making student standardized test results a key metric for teachers’ performance.
The state Department of Education’s decision on Aug. 31 was to raise the weight of PARCC test results from 10 percent to 30 percent used in the formula to judge the performance of instructors and administrators at public schools during the current 2016-17 academic year.
“Given the poor timing and lack of public notice or input, we question the motives of this decision,” the statement reads.
Superintendent Thomas Smith, who addressed comments and concerns surrounding the joint statement and the Aug. 31 decision, said the Department of Education’s move represents “direction that is different than we were led to believe as late as mid-August in terms of preparation.”
That sudden change, Board President Lisa Wolff said, flew directly in the face of what school districts throughout the state have come to expect over the years.
“Districts receive a formula from the Department of Education telling us how we should be measuring our teachers,” she said during the Nov 14. board meeting. “But literally on Aug. 31, the day before they had any other option of changing it, they said ‘Okay, we’re going to change it to 30 percent.’”
Once the shift in evaluations was announced, Ms. Wolff said the reaction was immediately negative.
“Not surprisingly, the teachers, administrators and many others found this to be kind of shocking and very disrespectful,” she said. “Usually you know what is coming down the pike, and this was just sort of, well, we questioned the motives of this decision.”
Once the joint statement was approved by the school board, it was signed by the board president, the superintendent and the heads of the teachers’ and administrators’ collective bargaining units,
“I don’t think you will find another group across the state of New Jersey who is signing a statement like this with the administrators association, the teachers association, the superintendent and the board of education,” Dr. Smith said. “I think that really shows the collaborative nature of the school district…and also our willingness to take a stand against something that we see is wrong.”
Before signing the statement, Paul Tkacs, an officer of the Hopewell Valley Education Association, spoke during the Nov. 14 school board meeting.
“The increase to the evaluations was arbitrary and the timing suspect. This statement shows that the Hopewell Valley community and the state of New Jersey that we are collectively invested in doing right by the professionals in this district,” Mr. Tkacs, a teacher at Hopewell Valley Central High School, said.
David Friedrich, an officer with the Hopewell Valley Administrators and Supervisors Association, also signed the statement. Mr. Friedrich is the principal at Hopewell Elementary School.
“I am proud to be a signer of this joint resolution and I appreciate Board President Lisa Wolff for her spearheading it and recommending it to everyone,” Dr. Smith said.Following its approval and signing, copies of the signed statement will be sent to representatives of the state’s 16th Legislative District; the New Jersey School Boards Association; the school boards of Mercer County; Kimberley Harrington, the acting commissioner of the state Department of Education; and the state Board of Education.
“As a board, we believe in speaking out when we think that something is unfair. Even more importantly, we would like to speak out in support of our teachers and in support of our administrators and in support of our students,” Ms. Wolff said. “That really is the basis of why we are doing this joint statement.”
