The “lame duck” legislative session, which concludes Jan. 9, has turned into a proverbial furious frenzy of education and other bills that are being fast-tracked to cater to lobbyists and interest groups at the cost of actual substantive education issues. If we are to secure real and meaningful change in New Jersey education, we cannot be deterred by policies that have no true impact on the staffing and funding crises that the education community currently faces.

The most recent bills (A-5877/S-4234 and A-5874/S-4233), debated in the Assembly Education Committee last week, serve as a distraction from the true crisis, as we find ourselves watching hours of testimony on educator evaluation systems and online instruction. These are both bills that the New Jersey Education Association supports, while virtually every other educational advocacy group stands in staunch disagreement with passing either bill in its current form.

The first bill (A-5877/S-4234) mandates changes in the teacher evaluation system that was largely put in place with the passage of Achieve NJ in 2013. In my opinion as a school superintendent in New Jersey, the components of the Achieve NJ Act must be reexamined in totality. But, if incremental changes are to move, we should eliminate specifics like the Student Growth Objectives (SGOs) and Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs).

SGOs are specific and measurable goals that a teacher selects that are tied to academic standards. SGPs are a component of a teacher’s evaluation score that are derived by calculating students’ standardized test scores between grade levels and assessments.

But these two components of former Gov. Chris Christie’s administration’s original bill have done little to nothing to strengthen teacher evaluation. Educator evaluations must be frequent, provide targeted feedback, require dialogue and serve as tools for professional development. Educator evaluations are also, by nature, evaluative and are a necessary component of employment. Suggesting that tenured teachers are burdened by the paperwork required for one annual formative and one summative evaluation is almost laughable. We must move beyond the rhetoric that distracts us in lame duck and focus on the true challenges we face in public education. The education evaluation bill (A-5877/S-4234) must be modified in its current form, or eliminated outright, until a full review and recommendation can be made after the new Legislature has convened in January.

The second bill (A-5874/S-4233) is related to online learning and  raises similar concerns. This bill greatly limits school districts’ abilities to utilize online instruction — except under certain highly specific circumstances. At its core, the bill is supported by the NJEA for job protection. It must be recognized that in the face of the current educator shortages, if we do not provide alternative pathways to administer instructional and programmatic access, students may be removed, such as with the lack of world language instructors.

Many districts are also utilizing online instruction for a variety of reasons, such as home instruction, shared service agreements with universities, alternate school environments, credit recovery programs and tutoring. The bill only contemplates a small number of circumstances. As such, passage of this bill in its current state limits districts’ abilities to meet the needs of a wide variety of learners and must be tabled until further discussions can be held.

As a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Public School Staff Shortages in New Jersey and the co-chair of the New Jersey Association of School Administrator (NJASA) Educator Recruitment and Retention Committee, it is my fervent opinion that we must do more to combat the pressing crisis related to the educator shortage that we currently face. In view of the pressing leadership changes at the New Jersey Department of Education, many unfilled positions on the New Jersey State Board of Education and the greatest looming teacher shortage in modern history, we must keep our eyes on the ball and maintain direct focus on several pressing education topics:

1. The educator shortages will not be solved quickly and need dedicated focus and vigilance. Next year, the Class of 2025 will be the smallest cohort of graduating certified teachers in recent decades. This makes sense because these were the high school graduates of 2021, the cohort that experienced their senior year with virtual instruction due to COVID-19. It should come as no surprise that so many decided not to enter public education. This, coupled with the growing number of retirements from the field and more than a decade of steadily decreasing numbers of certified educators (something that should have been predicted a decade ago), has only been exacerbated by the global pandemic. Further, there is a direct correlation between the number of educators graduating from our university and college partners and the diminished benefits that have been legislated and codified over the past decade.
2. The Governor’s Task Force must be reconvened, as our work had only started when the first report was authorized.
3. Recommendations to enhance entrance to the field must continue. For example, the recent changes to the mandated test of teaching candidates’ basic skills did not go far enough and only impacted nontraditional candidates. The test known as Praxis Core must be eliminated for all other education candidates. It is one of the greatest barriers to a diverse educator workforce. The opponents of such a measure clearly do not understand that there are numerous other systems checks that ensure high-quality education for students.
4. The teacher certification system in New Jersey must be reviewed and overhauled. There is a dearth of candidates in numerous fields that are required for graduation credits. The college-based education programs have addressed the lack of candidates by shutting down programs. This lack of candidates, coupled with the reduction in programs, and with criteria and practices that are overly complicated and fail to comport with common sense, all together creates a crisis for the next decade. Every possible option must be considered, from expanding the use of retirees, to opening licensure for out-of-state and international partnerships, to financial enhancements for student teachers and alternate-route candidates, to increasing the pipeline for paraprofessionals and instructional aides.

Lastly, but of grave concern, is the state’s education funding formula. As we enter the 2024-2025 budget season, we complete the last year of the current school funding formula and have reached so-called full funding. All school districts must understand how we will be funded moving forward, as the continuity of our programs and staffing is at great risk. It is critical that we find immediate remedies for the nearly 100 school districts impacted by the dramatic reductions in funding mandated by the 2018 legislation. The reductions have jeopardized students’ rights to the ”thorough and efficient” education as required by the state Constitution of New Jersey.

The issues confronting public education are too grave to be pushed aside in favor of the rhetoric of lame duck. The concerns of the education community cannot be minimized by sound bites; and legislation, like the recent bill mandating changes in employees’ utilization of sick days, should not be moved through the legislative process without consultation with and consideration by all stakeholders. Quick decisions, made during this short window of time, splash the headlines with temporary wins, but have tremendous impacts in implementation. Our students, staff and school districts deserve better.