Report: Two Millburn Teachers Did Not Meet Standard

The two teachers who are listed as not meeting standard are no longer with the Millburn School District.

A state law requires school districts to release teacher evaluation information, which the school district did last week. The data shows 484 of the district's 486 teachers met standard, which is 99.6 percent. One teacher was at Millburn Middle School, and the second was at Deerfield Elementary School. The data represents the 2009-10 school year.

"They weren't asked back," said Schools Supt. James Crisfield of what the district did in response to the teachers who did not meet standard. "Why would (a school district) want someone back who doesn't meet its standards?"

The teachers, who were not tenured, were not renewed during the proper proceedings last spring, he said. Tenured teachers also can be not renewed, but the the process is not as immediate as it is for a non-tenured teacher, he said.

In order to meet standards, a teacher must have a four-year college degree, a regular teaching license/credential and proof of the knowledge of the subject in which he teaches. The evaluation process for Millburn teachers, included in the documentation, includes principal walk-throughs of classrooms and observations and lesson plan reviews. Non-tenured teachers have a review three times per year, and a tenured teacher has one.

Crisfield said he likes the state's new evaluation requirements, but the tough piece to crack will be how to categorize the teachers who resign. Teachers resign for many different reasons, he said, including to take another teaching job or to leave the profession and do something else. But some teachers resign because they're given an indication they will not be renewed, he said, and those teachers are not included in the numbers.

The pdf of the evaluation report and Crisfield's accompanying letter are at right.