EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – Superintendent Scott McCartney announced the news that Egg Harbor Township Schools are “no longer working under the guidelines of No Child Left Behind” during the Board of Education meeting Tuesday, Feb. 14. Instead, the district will work with the state to implement a new evaluation system to ensure student performance is at its peak and that teachers are being held to high standards as well.

On Friday, Feb. 10, Gov. Chris Christie announced the Obama administration had approved New Jersey’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver application along with 11 other states. The application, submitted in November, had to include a plan to reform the state's accountability systems to increase academic standards, the effectiveness and talent of educators, and accountability for results in the classroom.

Among other changes through this waiver, schools such as those in Egg Harbor Township will no longer be subject to NCLB accountability provisions and sanctions required for not making Adequately Yearly Progress. NCLB has been the fodder of controversy over the years, and the waiver comes as its 2013-2014 performance deadlines were fast approaching.

Assistant Superintendent Kim Gruccio presented some of the proposed changes that were outlined in the state’s plan. She said the process will take up to two years to fully implement, but McCartney said the district is already using some of the processes.

“We do many of these pieces and parts already,” he said.

The new program contains four core principles:

Student performance will be measured in both learning outcomes, or output, and effective teaching practices, or input. For higher needs students, performance benchmarks will be based on individual student progress, not absolute performance as NCLB required.

A four-tiered rating system based on research will be designed as a guide for performance measures.

There will be a “direct link” between teacher evaluations and professional development opportunities.

And the administrators and supervisors who are conducting the evaluations will be properly trained to ensure reliability and accuracy in the reports.

Non-tenured teachers would be observed three times in a formal manner and twice in an informal manner. The district’s non-tenured teachers are already observed this way, she said.

Tenured teachers would need to be observed twice formally and informally. They are currently only being observed once a year in a formal manner.

The formal observations for both categories would include new components, a pre- and post-conference, Gruccio said.

“The administrator and the teacher will meet before the observation, discuss the lesson and the goals of the lesson,” she said. “Then, after the observation, they will sit and collaborate on the recommendations and the professional development that will follow.”

Gruccio said there are several deadlines with which the district must comply. An advisory committee must be formed by November 2012, a step the district already completed. The board must adopt a rating system and turn it in to the state by Jan. 1, 2013. A test run of the system must be conducted between January and August 2013, and teachers and administrators must be trained before August 2013.

The training that will be required to implement the new system will be expensive, he said.

“The training process can cost anywhere from $150,000 to $300,000,” he said. “We are looking at alternative revenue sources.”

McCartney said the district has applied to be part of a pilot program, Excellent Educators for New Jersey, or EE4NJ, which awards grants to participating districts.

On a state level, New Jersey has also applied to receive President Obama’s Race to The Top grant. McCartney said if the state gets the federal grant, the district could receive approximately $47,000.