Frequency of Evaluations : New Jersey
Identifying Effective Teachers Policy
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.
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.
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New Jersey
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Preparation Programs
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Research rationale
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).