Chatham School District's Ranking Lower Than Usual Under Controversial New Standard

CHATHAM, NJ— The School District of the Chathams generally fares well in school district rankings, but not using a controversial new standard.

Using new teacher evaluation data which factors in students test scores, The School District of the Chathams ranked 424th out of 563 schools that reported. Just 7.3 percent of all district teachers are effective, under these guidelines.

That's a big difference from a ranking which didn't factor in student test scores. Earlier this year, Niche.com placed The School District of the Chathams at 5th in the state, and 41st in the nation.

The state Department of Education released its second annual teacher evaluation report, finding that 1.6 percent of New Jersey's public school teachers were rated "ineffective" or "partially effective" in 2014-15. But the number of school districts that reported these numbers last year was small.

Read more: N.J.'s Best, Worst Teachers Ranked By School District In Controversial State Review

Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association, said the teacher evaluation is unnecessary, particularly because of the way it's comprised. He told nj.com that the Department of Education "has created a climate of pressure and fear around testing that hurts everyone in our schools."

The NJEA is pushing for a bill, which passed the Assembly recently, that would remove student tests from the evaluations. NJEA Vice President Marie Blistan said the use of standardized test scores for teacher evaluation "damages schools."

“It’s that simple. Standardized tests are a more accurate indication of life circumstances than the impact of single teacher on a student in a given year," she said in a statement. "Inappropriate use of this flawed measurement narrows the curriculum and forces educators to focus valuable class time on test preparation."

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