NJ Spotlight published the following article on February 3, 2014. To read the full article, click here.
STATE TO PROVIDE FIRST ROUND OF STUDENT TEST PERFORMANCE DATA
JOHN MOONEY | FEBRUARY 3, 2014
Debated and discussed for more than two years, the student test measures for New Jersey teachers are about to get their first practice run.
The state Department of Education tomorrow will provide districts with the median “student growth percentiles” (SGPs) for about 20,000 educators who teach language arts and math in Grades 4-8, the grades in which data is available from state tests. The cohort works out to roughly a fifth of all teachers.
The median SGP indicates how a teacher’s typical student progressed from one year to the next on the state’s standardized tests, compared to other students with similar achievement levels across the state. The rating runs from the first to the 99th percentile, with the 50th considered average and within the “effective” range for teacher evaluations.
This year and going forward, the data for each teacher will be confidential, with the state’s tenure reform law explicitly stating that the individual ratings are not public.