Frequency of Evaluations : New Hampshire

Analysis of New Hampshire's policies

New Hampshire does not address the number of times teachers must be evaluated.

Recommendations for New Hampshire

Require annual formal evaluations for all teachers.
All teachers in New Hampshire 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, New Hampshire should require multiple observations for all teachers, even those who have nonprobationary status. 

Ensure that new teachers are observed and receive feedback early in the school year.
It is critical that schools and districts closely monitor the performance of new teachers. New Hampshire should ensure that its new teachers get the support they need and that supervisors know early on which new teachers may be struggling or at risk for unacceptable levels of performance.

State response to our analysis

New Hampshire asserted that its Task Force on Teaching Effectiveness has defined effective teaching, and is working to develop a system of educator effectiveness, which will include a framework for teacher evaluation using multiple measures of student achievement outcomes. In addition, New Hampshire's Accountability Task Force has developed a growth model for measuring student outcomes, which will drive the achievement component of the teacher evaluation framework.