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Meet Jorden Schiff...

The intense search for a new superintendent by the Readington School Board has culminated with the hiring of Jorden Schiff, an 11 year Readington resident with three children in the district. Who is this man and what is he all about?

Jorden is currently working as one of three Assistant Superintendents in Howell Township School District, a position he has held since the 2002-2003 school year. His current title there is Assistant Superintendent of Personnel and Curriculum, and his fellow Assistant Superintendents there handle duties as Board Secretary and for Pupil Services. Prior to joining the Howell Township School District, Jorden worked as a Principal in Westfield from 1996 to 2002. Before that, he served as Principal in High Bridge and has spent time as a teacher, a supervisor of fine arts and a trainer.

After receiving his BS in Economics from Cook College in 1988, Jorden went on to earn his Masters in Education from Rutgers in 1990 and his Doctorate in Education from Rutgers in 1998. His dissertation was titled “Student Achievement and Self-Concept in Schools with Different Racial Compositions.”

Jorden describes his work in the Howell District as focused on “curriculum, budget issues and special education” and he believes he can add value to the Readington Schools. He sees the top problems in Readington as continuity, stability and communication. He intends for the first 180 days of his term to be a transitional phase where he will engage in meetings with stakeholders and concentrate on setting priorities and on strategic planning.

On the subject of teachers, Jorden believes that they must love coming to work and that they “want to be respected.” He believes that teachers need to be supported and directed and that “they deserve support as long as their motivation is good.” Questioned about the transfer of teachers to other grades as a management tool, he offered that it should be “teacher dependent” and that decisions should be made case by case. He stresses the importance of staff development and he noted that “the real key is staying intellectually engaged.” He favors teachers who are respectful of children and who make the classroom a happy place, and he frowns upon teachers who create “dry, disrespectful classrooms” and who “do not recognize individual differences” among children.

Parents, Jorden believes, want to know that teachers can help their children and need to know that their children are safe, happy and nurtured. Parental involvement is critical to success, he says, and parents should be welcome in the classroom.

As for personal management style, Jorden says that he will be a “visable” superintendent who will know the names of staff and children and who will frequently “pop into a classroom” to observe. He has related the story of a mistake he made early in his career by offering tenure to a teacher he could not “enthusiastically” recommend for that step. The result, he says, was a teacher who got worse over time and who did not deal well with parents. Now he makes certain that he can be enthusiastic about a teacher before offering tenure.

On larger issues of educational philosophy, Jorden is pragmatic and often falls somewhere in the middle of a debate. Asked about the NCLB law which is forcing school districts to be accountable by way of standardized testing and Annual Yearly Progress, he observed that the intent of the law was fine but that we need to be more sophisticated about measuring progress. He also thinks that the idea of all children “reaching the same bar” is untenable. While defending differentiation in classrooms, he also pointed out that there is a “middle ground” that should exist. While not a fan of standardized testing and stating that “we test too much,” he also thinks that educational writers such as Alfie Kohn are “too far out there” for suggesting that testing be abandoned for other measures of progress.

Technology is used “seamlessly” by teachers in Howell Schools, according to Jorden, and he believes that the infrastructure in Readington needs work. He stressed the importance of technology for teaching children in the world of today. His initial observations of Readington technology left him with the feeling that there is work to do.

Asked about his potential for conflict from being both a parent and a superintendent in the same district, Jorden was certain that it would not be a problem. If someone were to accost his wife or children about a district problem--that would be one thing and he would let the police handle the situation. “They didn’t sign up for this job” he noted. However, he doesn’t envision any issues with parent teacher conferences, or teacher evaluations, or similar areas where there is a potential for a conflicting interest.

In a meeting with Readington stakeholders just before he was hired, Jorden came across as affable and humorous and he had no difficulty engaging the audience. Afterwards, there was general consensus among those attending that he was genuine and likable in a broad sense. With so much now riding on this hiring, these are qualities he will likely need to make progress.