Frequency of Evaluations : New Jersey

Identifying Effective Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should require annual evaluations of all teachers.

Meets goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Frequency of Evaluations : New Jersey results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/NJ-Frequency-of-Evaluations--8

Analysis of New Jersey's policies

Commendably, all teachers in New Jersey must be evaluated annually. 

Nonprobationary teachers are required to be evaluated once a year. New teachers in New Jersey must be evaluated three times a year. At least one evaluation must occur during each semester, and all three must be completed by April 30. Each evaluation is followed by a conference to discuss teacher performance.

Citation

Recommendations for New Jersey

Base evaluations on multiple observations.
To guarantee that annual evaluations are based on an adequate collection of information, New Jersey should require multiple observations for all teachers, even those who have nonprobationary status. Further, as evaluation instruments become more data driven, it may not be feasible to issue multiple formal evaluation ratings during a single year. Applicable student data will likely not be available to support multiple ratings.  

State response to our analysis

New Jersey recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

Research rationale

For the frequency of evaluations in government and private industry, see survey results from Hudson Employment Index's report: "Pay and Performance in America: 2005 Compensation and Benefits Report" Hudson Highlands Group (2005).

For research emphasizing the importance of evaluation and observations for new teachers in predicting future success and providing support for teachers see, D. Staiger and J. Rockoff, "Searching for Effective Teachers with Imperfect Information." The Journal of Economic Perspectives. (24:3) American Economic Association (2010).