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This report from September 5, 2012, outlines the efforts of the Education Transformation Task Force in freeing educators from restrictive mandates to enhance student learning and outcomes. The report highlights the review of regulations, statutes, and accountability systems to ensure quality instruction, academic achievement, and teaching effectiveness. Key recommendations for regulatory and statutory changes are presented to improve operational flexibility and reduce compliance activities. The focus on accountability for results and continuous improvement in state education systems is emphasized throughout the report.
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Education Transformation Task ForceFinal Report September 5, 2012
Agenda Overview of Education Transformation Task Force Liberating educators from restrictive regulatory mandates Liberating educators from restrictive statutory mandates Ensuring accountability for results Next steps
Education Transformation Task Force • The Education Transformation Task Force was created by Executive Order of the Governor on April 4, 2011 to review regulations, statutes, and the State’s accountability systems. “The Task Force shall evaluate all such regulations to determine the extent to which they increase the quality of instruction for students, improve the academic achievement of students, improve teaching effectiveness within schools or improve the safety and wellbeing of students. The Task Force shall also review the statutes supporting these administrative regulations….The Task Force shall also review existing accountability systems and resulting incentive structures for public schools and public school districts…”
Task Force members • Dave Hespe (Chair) – Chief of Staff, DOE • Angel Cordero – Co-founder and Director, Community Education Resource Network • Angela Davis – Principal (Teaneck) • Frank Digesere– Superintendent (Kearney) - retired • Linda DuBois– Mayor, Teacher (Pittsgrove) • Don Goncalves – Assistant Board Secretary (Elizabeth) • Bruce Litinger– Executive Director, ECLC of New Jersey • Mike Osnato – Chair, Seton Hall University Department of Education Leadership, Management and Policy
Task Force activities and outreach • 14 meetings • 4 public hearings • 4 focus groups attended by more than 40 educators • Individual meetings with numerous stakeholder groups • Presentations from more than a dozen expert witnesses • Participation from 3 members of the State Board • Review of more than 3,000 pages of statute and code
Task Force focus • Number one priority for the State is to ensure that every student, regardless of background, graduates from high school ready for college and career • We have a responsibility to make sure that our statutes, regulations, and accountability systems serve this goal • The Task Force reviewed every line of State education code to identify regulations that do not effectively and efficiently improve student learning, ensure fiscal integrity, or protect student health and safety
Problems with excessive regulation • Stifles innovation – educators need autonomy to craft their own path to success, while being held accountable for results • Redirects focus – State requirements that are not focused on student learning, fiscal integrity, or health and safety distract educators from the work that matters most: preparing students to graduate from high school ready for success in life • Focus on compliance – culture of overregulation can lead educators to expect that regulatory compliance, rather than student learning, defines success
Task Force report recommendations • 428 regulatory changes to be considered by Commissioner and State Board • 46 statutory changes to be considered by Legislature • Concrete recommendations to continually improve statewide accountability system
Agenda Overview of Education Transformation Task Force Liberating educators from restrictive regulatory mandates Liberating educators from restrictive statutory mandates Ensuring accountability for results Next steps
Regulatory changes – benefit to educators • Ease reporting requirements to the State • Reduce compliance activities • Provide flexibility in operations • Provide flexibility in programs • Provide flexibility in staffing • Enable high-quality, impactful professional development • Clarify confusing code requirements
Ease reporting requirements to the State Reduce more than a dozen reporting requirements that are duplicative or unnecessary, including: • N.J.A.C. § 6A:16-5.3(f) – Removes requirement that districts transcribe the superintendent’s presentation to local boards of education on violence and vandalism and submit it to the Commissioner, when they can simply post the presentation online • N.J.A.C. § 6A:16-7.1(a) & (b) – Removes requirement that districts submit an annual report on student conduct to the NJDOE, which is already largely collected elsewhere and provides the Department no new information
Reduce compliance activities Reduce burdensome or unnecessary compliance activities that distract from student learning, including: • N.J.A.C. § 6A:23A-5.6 – Removes requirement that districts spend time to create a corrective action plan in response to an OFAC report when there were no findings of wrongdoing • N.J.A.C. § 6A:16-2.4(b) – Removes requirement that the Commissioner approve the form districts use to collect required student health information
Provide flexibility in operations Remove overly-bureaucratic regulations that limit the ability of districts to spend funds in ways aligned with student achievement, especially in the context of the 2 percent statutory levy cap, including: • N.J.A.C. § 6A:32-7.4 & 7.8 – Allows for electronic storage of student records and removes requirement that districts keep student addresses and phone numbers for 100 years • N.J.A.C. § 6A:16-2.2(h)2iv & 4.2(b) – Allows districts to disseminate certain information by electronic means, saving both time and money • N.J.A.C. § 6A:23A-9.3(c)3 – Removes State mandate outlining what kinds of paper districts can use
Provide flexibility in programs Provide flexibility for districts to explore innovative and successful programs that best meet the needs of their students, including: • N.J.A.C. § 6A:16-9.1 – Provides flexibility for districts to offer online and other distance learning options for students out of school with temporary or chronic health conditions • N.J.A.C. § 6A–13-3.5 – Provides flexibility to high-need districts to deliver math and early literacy interventions that are the best fit for their students when less than 85 percent of students are proficient on NJ ASK, rather than requiring specific programs mandated from Trenton
Provide flexibility in staffing Broaden the pool of high-quality staff and reduce the administrative burden on fully-certified teaching and administrative staff, especially in shortage areas, including:
Enable high-quality, impactful professional development for educators Make professional development more meaningful for educators and administrators, including: • Current: Requires 100 hours of PD every 5 years, which has become a compliance checklist filled with activities with little impact on student achievement. • Proposed: Empowers local leaders to develop customized PD plans focused on job-embedded, collaborative, student achievement-focused activities. Yearly 20-hour requirement and principal evaluation system that evaluates principals on quality and implementation of these plans will give flexibility at the school level but focus PD on day-to-day activities.
Clarify confusing code requirements Reduce the amount of time local administrators spend navigating the regulatory code and interpreting relevant or duplicative rules, including: • Eliminates Chapter 26A, which governs comprehensive maintenance plans, and merge its substance into a new subchapter of Chapter 26. Providing educators with duplicate provisions relating to school facilities in multiple chapters of code is confusing and detracts from the work of supporting student learning.
Agenda Overview of Education Transformation Task Force Liberating educators from restrictive regulatory mandates Liberating educators from restrictive statutory mandates Ensuring accountability for results Next steps
Statutory recommendations The Task Force recommended 46 changes to statute that would, among other things, help districts focus on fiscal restraint and student learning. These proposals, which would require legislative approval, include: • Facilitating district mergers and shared service agreements • Allowing school districts to opt out of the civil service system • Utilizing average daily enrollment to calculate school aid • Eliminating non-operating school districts • Enabling electronic payments by school districts
Statutory recommendations (continued) • Reforming the seniority system which prevents schools from considering teacher effectiveness when conducting reductions in force • Strengthening innovation and accountability for charter schools through the Charter School Reform Act • Eliminating mandatory physical examinations for new teachers • Standardizing criminal history background checks • Strengthening the School Ethics Act
Agenda Overview of Education Transformation Task Force Liberating educators from restrictive regulatory mandates Liberating educators from restrictive statutory mandates Ensuring accountability for results Next steps
Strengthening accountability systems • Create a unified accountability system – the Department should develop and propose an alternative to QSAC to make it school-based in focus and consistent with the new NCLB framework. • Consider more intensive interventions for Priority and Focus Schools that prove unwilling or unable to turn around after several years of state support. • Develop a new process for returning state-operated districts to local control in a manner that maintains stability and ensures ongoing state support for schools that are persistently failing.
Agenda Overview of Education Transformation Task Force Liberating educators from restrictive regulatory mandates Liberating educators from restrictive statutory mandates Ensuring accountability for results Next steps
Continual Deregulatory Process • This report represents only the first step in the deregulatory process. • In order to reflect a culture of innovation and empowerment, the Department will be engaging in a continual deregulatory process involving a critical review of all of our code, guidance documents and directives. • This ongoing process reflects a philosophical commitment to review education rules to ensure that they are designed and implemented to improve student achievement, ensure fiscal responsibility, and protect student health and safety.
