Meet Board of Education Candidate Trevor Shaw

Name: Trevor Shaw

Professional Life: In 1992, gained an Long Island University Bachelor of Arts in English and minored in Secondary Education. At the Teachers College of Columbia University, received a master's of arts in Instructional Media and Technology in 2009. An English teacher at Coyle and Cassidy High School, Taunton, from 1992-93. An English teacher at from 1993-2001 at St. Benedict's Preparatory School, Newark. The Technology Director from 2001 to present at Dwight-Englewood School.

Family Life: In town for nine years. Wife Kathy, a Cranford High School teacher. Two children: son Liam, a fifth grader at Livingston Avenue School and Maggie, a third grader at Livingston Avenue School.

What is your position on Cranford High School’s ranking jump from 29 t 13 in the latest ranking by New Jersey Monthly Magazine? Do you believe these rankings reflect the academic performance of the high school? 

 I do believe that Cranford High School provides a top notch education. 

However, I am often skeptical of what these lists actually measure. One of the categories measured, for example, is the percent of students going on to a four-year college. A family's economic circumstances has just as much to do with this as the child's school.

I also think schools can have vastly different goals depending on the communities they serve, and to rank them based on SAT scores, HSPA proficiencies, and the percentage of 3s on the AP seems to miss the point. I like the idea of measuring added value. If you could somehow gauge how much a school contributed to a student's score improvement, that would tell you something meaningful about the school. I would also want to measure school climate more effectively by looking at things like attendance, drop outs, participation in extra curricular activities, number of full time teachers who also coach, etc. With that being said, if they're going to rank us, I want us at the top of the list.

What is your position on merit pay, teacher tenure reform and “last in, first out?”

 People get passionate about these issues because in their current form, they often violate what we believe to be fair -- People who do the best and most challenging work should get paid the most. If someone isn't doing her job well, she should get fired. You shouldn't have to lay someone off who is great to protect someone who is mediocre and has seniority.
Many of our politicians have recently leveraged people's passion by presenting these arguments in overly simplistic terms. In doing so, they have cast the teaching profession as lazy, privileged,  incompetent, and over-compensated. Because of this rhetoric, I think our schools will be suffering for years to come as a result of decimated morale, people leaving the profession and others who choose not to enter it. 
They have also ignored some of the details that make public education different from business.

Merit Pay - I believe that the purpose of salary is to attract and retain the best people you can afford. Salaries should be set in the context of districts with whom you compete for teachers. I also think districts should have greater flexibility in how they compensate their teachers. Linking pay scales to test scores, however does not work. Incentive pay works well when a task is clear and it's simply a matter of working harder or faster. Teaching doesn't work like this.

Tenure Reform - Yes, of course it needs to be fixed. Teachers, however, are in the position of holding power over the children of their employers (the citizens of a town). Some reasonable process for evaluation and dismissal of people needs to be maintained to prevent teachers from being fired for being rigorous in the classroom or for penalizing a cheating student who has a vocal parent.

Last in First Out -- People get angry about this because it seems to put the needs of the employee ahead of the needs of the children. Often our youngest teachers are our most passionate and idealistic. They relate well to the kids. They are willing to try out new teaching methods and technologies.They usually coach or take on several extra curricular activities. The idea of taking away this person's seat on the bus and giving it to someone who naps between classes in the teacher's lounge makes most of us cringe. Schools should have the power to keep the best teachers. The problem is that the youngest teachers are not always the best teachers. They are, however, the cheapest.  I am in favor of eliminating LIFO if we can be reasonably sure that  layoff decisions are made based on the quality of the teacher and not on economic needs.

What processes and procedures do you believe should be used for teacher evaluations?  

I believe that for a process to have validity as a tool for professional growth teachers must be involved in its design.
I think that an effective system has to be sustainable and "do-able." In many organizations, the volume of evaluations that need to be done results in feedback that is generic and not very helpful.
I tend to favor frequent informal classroom visits by supervisors with immediate verbal feedback over infrequent formal class observations. Formal observations may follow in cases where needed.
I have personally found it helpful to receive feedback from people other than my supervisor including students and colleagues.

What do you believe the school district could do to prevent bullying? 

It would seem that if students are required by law to attend school, it is incumbent upon the school to keep them safe from torment. It is also clear that learning cannot occur in an environment where a student does not feel physically safe.
This is not an area of expertise of mine, however, so I will be looking for guidance from other board members, school administrators, and teachers as we work through this issue. 

Are the Cranford public schools better off than where they were three years ago? 

I have great concerns about the toll that some of the rhetoric, budget cuts, and legislation coming out of Trenton is having on our schools. These things have diminished all public schools.

I believe that we have not yet responded to these challenges in a way that puts us on a path to sustained excellence. I look forward to working with the board to help frame such a vision.

Editor's Note: These questions were provided to the three candidates for the Board of Education and these answers are in their own words. Editing was done for grammar and style but not substance. These questions and answers are provided to allow you the voter to hear directly from the candidates on the key issues impacting the public schools.