Identifying Effective Teachers Policy
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.
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.
New Jersey recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.