Monmouth University School of Education Superintendents’ Academy Kicks off first session on October 2

The Monmouth University Superintendents’ Academy’s held the first session of their fifth membership year at Monmouth University’s Multipurpose Activity Center (MAC).  Dr. Jill Takacs, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in the Middletown Township School District facilitated the session titled “Aligning SGOs (Student Growth Objectives) with Effective Assessment Practices and Common Core Standards.”

Dr. Takacs began her presentation to the Superintendents by indicating that she was going to talk to them about “intention and not compliance.” She reminded them that assessment is something we do “for” students and not “to” students. 

SGOs are one of the multiple measures that districts must use to evaluate teachers.  According to the State of NJ DOE website, these objectives are “academic goals for groups of students that are aligned to state standards and can be tracked using objective measures.”

Dr. Takacs examined assessment practices used by teachers, cautioning the Academy to make sure that the assessments that are used by teachers are a measure of the knowledge and understanding of the students.  She concluded her presentation by providing the group with three articles on assessment and sample forms with regard to the creation and assessment of Student Growth Objectives.

The assessments are part of Achieve NJ, an initiative developed by the NJ DOE Educator Effectiveness Task Force (EETF) in 2011, and finalized in March 2013.  This fall, the State of New Jersey has mandated that New Jersey teacher evaluation ratings be based on: 30% Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) which are based on NJ ASK test score data; 15% SGOs, one to two measures that teachers set with the approval of their principals; and 55% classroom observations.

Upcoming sessions are: Wednesday, December 11, 2013, “Implementing the Teacher and Principal Evaluation Models”; Wednesday, March 5, 2014, “Using Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning”, and Wednesday, April 30, 2014, “Preparing Students for College and Careers: Implementing PARCC”.  All sessions will be held 12:00 p.m. to  2:00 p.m. in the Varsity Rooms at the University’s Multipurpose Activity Center (MAC).  For more information contact: School of Education, Dean’s Office, soesuperintendentsacademy@monmouth.edu, (732) 571-7518.