Professional Development: New Hampshire

Analysis of New Hampshire's policies

New Hampshire does not have state-level policy requiring that teachers receive feedback from their evaluations or that connects professional development to teachers' evaluations.

New Hampshire's Task Force on Effective Teaching outlines a model system that would require teachers to "receive regular and meaningful formative feedback in order to improve their performance." It also would connect professional development programs to the evaluation systems and require that any teacher rated ineffective or needs improvement would be supported by a directed professional growth (improvement) plan. 

Citation

The New Hampshire Task Force of Effective Teaching: Phase II http://education.nh.gov/teaching/documents/phase2report.pdf

Recommendations for New Hampshire

Require that evaluation systems provide teachers with feedback about their performance.
In order to increase their effectiveness in the classroom, teachers need to receive feedback on strengths and areas that need improvement identified in their evaluations. As such, New Hampshire should require that evaluation systems provide teachers with feedback about their classroom performance.

Ensure that professional development is aligned with findings from teachers' evaluations.
Professional development that is not informed by evaluation results may be of little value to teachers' professional growth and the aim of increasing their effectiveness in the classroom. New Hampshire should ensure that districts utilize teacher evaluation results in determining professional development needs and activities.   

Ensure that teachers receiving less than effective ratings are placed on a professional improvement plan.
New Hampshire should adopt a policy requiring that teachers who receive even one unsatisfactory evaluation be placed on structured improvement plans. These plans should focus on performance areas that directly connect to student learning and should identify noted deficiencies, define specific action steps necessary to address these deficiencies and describe how and when progress will be measured.

State response to our analysis

New Hampshire asserted that it requires that professional development be linked to educator evaluation. The state further noted that it does not rely solely on state policy and mandate to improve educator effectiveness. It is only one of multiple levers available to improve professional practice in the state. New Hampshire then pointed out that it is a small state with an exceptionally strong belief in local control. Student performance is generally high. Professional associations provide collaborative ventures in professional learning to supplement what the state agency is able to provide. The Department of Education does not have the statutory authority to mandate some of the policy that is recommended by NCTQ. The state uses an approach of assessing current practice, bringing stakeholders together and improving practice because it is the right thing to do.