NJ Spotlight published the following article on August 8, 2014. To read the full article, click here.
FINE PRINT: “STUDENT GROWTH OBJECTIVE” PROCESS ANYTHING BUT SIMPLE
State education officials offer examples of how goals fit into revamped teacher evaluations
What it is: State Department of Education staff on Wednesday presented the State Board of Education with an outline and examples of how the process works for setting “student growth objectives,” which are agreed-upon measures that every teacher must use as part of their annual evaluations.
What it means: The SGOs are big stuff in schools under the state’s new teacher-tenure law and its revamped evaluation system, with SGO accounting for 20 percent of all teachers’ evaluations. That’s more than the much-debated assessment measure centered on student test performance.
The presentation showed that the use of SGOs is no simple process, with multiple steps and requirements.