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Star Ledger - PARCC's tie to teacher evaluations drives controversy …Data on student academic growth extracted from the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exams will count as a 10 percent weight in the performance evaluation of some New Jersey teachers (Ty Wright | AP Photo )
By Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com The Star-Ledger
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on March 15, 2015 at 8:31 AM, updated March 15, 2015 at 9:07 AM
The use of PARCC data may be small factor in New Jersey's teacher evaluations, but it is playing a large role in the controversy surrounding the new tests.
Student growth data from the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams will count as a 10 percent weight this school year in the evaluations of English and math teachers in grades 4-8.
The use of PARCC data may be small factor in New Jersey's teacher evaluations, but it is playing a large role in the controversy surrounding the new tests.
Student growth data from the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams will count as a 10 percent weight this school year in the evaluations of English and math teachers in grades 4-8.
The state's largest teachers union, and some parents, have decried the use of PARCC data in teacher evaluations, and a bill passed by the state Assembly would ban using PARCC data to evaluate teachers for three years.
Meanwhile, skeptics question whether union leaders are opposed to PARCC itself or the idea of being evaluated based on test data.
"I think there is a portion of the teachers union which sees the anti-PARCC fervor as a way to overturn the decision to tie data to teacher assessments," said Laura Waters, an education blogger and long-time member of the Lawrence Township Board of Education.
The debate has cast a backdrop over a student testing period in which thousands of students have refused the tests.
"If your entire class fails, then your favorite teacher might be fired," said Lila Lofving, a seventh-grader at Montclair's Mount Hebron Middle School who earlier this year listed the reasons she didn't want to take the tests.
That scenario is unlikely, considering that the data used in teacher evaluations is based on student growth, not overall performance, and a teacher needs two straight years of substandard evaluations to be in jeopardy of losing tenure, said Carl Blanchard, director of evaluation for the state Department of Education.
But the department acknowledged in testimony before the state Senate Education Committee that it's struggling to ensure facts are heard among the voices of dissent in the PARCC conversation.
The New Jersey Education Association, which has deemed PARCC unproven and experimental, is in the midst of an aggressive campaign against the tests.
In January, NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer co-authored an editorial saying that PARCC will be used, among other purposes, to decide whether teachers get fired. A month later, the union launched a six-week advertising assault against PARCC.
Steinhauer denies that the use of PARCC in teacher evaluations is the source of the union's concerns about PARCC.
"It ranks down on the list, because right now it's about the parents and the teachers having a voice in this flawed testing," Steinhauer said.
But he says the use of student PARCC data to evaluate teachers is still a problem.
"Bad data is bad data no matter how much or how little weight is is given," Steinhauer said.
Regardless of the data concerns, the evaluation system is designed to give teachers the benefit of the doubt, Blanchard said. Because the 10 percent weight is so small and the evaluation system is designed to minimize the impact of a single year's bad score, "the math is certainly in the teacher's favor," Blanchard said.
If the student growth score for a teacher in 2014-15 is lower than before, the state will use a combination of data from the past two school years, Blanchard said. The department says the impact of PARCC on a teachers overall evaluation should be minimal.
"It's very rare that a teacher's overall evaluation, let alone their evaluation for multiple years — which actually influences their tenure — would be influenced by a 10 percent weighting." said Peter Shulman, an assistant state education commissioner.
But the state's assurances haven't stopped the debate, especially considering that PARCC results will rise to 20 percent of the overall evaluation next year.
"If ten kids come down with the flu during the middle of the test and perform very poorly... if those ten kids are all in the same third-grade class, it could make a huge difference for that teacher," Steinhauer said.
Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
