Frequency of Evaluations : West Virginia

Analysis of West Virginia's policies

Regrettably, West Virginia does not ensure that all teachers are evaluated annually.

Nonprobationary teachers in their fourth and fifth years of teaching must be evaluated once per year. However, nonprobationary teachers with five or more years of experience, who have not received an unsatisfactory rating, are only evaluated when a supervisor deems it necessary or when the teacher requests to be evaluated.

New teachers in West Virginia must be evaluated twice a year. As part of the state's process, they must be observed at least three times in the classroom, with the first observation occurring by November 1. Post-observation conferences are scheduled after each observation to discuss teacher performance.

Citation

West Virginia Code of State Rules, Education, 126-142-9.1 and 9.2

Recommendations for West Virginia

Require annual formal evaluations for all teachers.
All teachers in West Virginia should be evaluated annually. Rather than treated as mere formalities, these teacher evaluations should serve as important tools for rewarding good teachers, helping average teachers improve and holding weak teachers accountable for poor performance.  

Base evaluations on multiple observations.
To guarantee that annual evaluations are based on an adequate collection of information, West Virginia should require multiple observations for all teachers, even those who have nonprobationary status. 

State response to our analysis

West Virginia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.