TRENTON – Assemblywoman Michele Matsikoudis’ bill that will create the New Jersey Educator Evaluation Review Task Force was signed into law May 17. Its purpose will be to study and suggest changes to the current public educator evaluation system established under the TEACHNJ Act of 2012.
“Educators should spend their time planning and teaching, not filling out endless piles of tedious paperwork,” Asw. Matsikoudis (R-Union) said.
Under the bill (S2082/A3413), the 13-member task force must deliver its recommendations to the governor and legislature by September 30, with those recommendations to be adopted for the 2025-26 academic year.
“My district office has been inundated with messages from teachers saying this law will give them more time to focus on what truly matters: teaching their students,” Asw. Matsikoudis continued. “The bureaucracy of the current system doesn’t help improve student growth objectives.”
Since the 2013-14 school year, public school principals, assistant principals, vice principals and teachers have faced annual evaluations based on student achievements and classroom observations. Teachers were tasked with setting student growth objectives based on state assessments, a time-consuming, paperwork- heavy process, especially for high school teachers who may have 100 students or more. Tenure may be granted or denied based on those scores. Alreadytenured educators can lose that status if charges of being ineffective based on those scores are upheld in arbitration.
Asw. Matsikoudis said the push for change is driven by ongoing teacher shortages. College students are choosing to enter different professions, while teachers and administrators are leaving the field in droves, citing “challenging work conditions” as one reason for their decisions.
“While still maintaining important accountability measures, this law aligns with my overall mission to cut burdensome red tape and improve the quality of dedicated instruction that our K-12 students receive in the classroom,” Asw. Matsikoudis added. “I’m hopeful that this bipartisan, common sense solution will provide a better work environment for our state’s educators, empowering them to help our students grow into the very best version of themselves.”
