Teacher and Principal Evaluation
On August 6, 2012, Governor Christie signed into law the TEACHNJ (Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey) Act, which mandated changes in the way that school districts evaluate teachers and principals, and also altered the processes by which those staff members attain and maintain tenure. On March 6, 2013, the New Jersey Department of Education issued guidelines which provided further details on how these changes will be implemented.
Beginning with the 2013-2014 school year, all teachers and principals will be evaluated according to a combination of rating by a supervisor using a state-approved rubric and various indicators of student achievement.
For all teachers, Student Growth Objectives (SGOs) will comprise 15% of their annual rating. According to the NJDOE, SGOs “are long-term academic goals, informed by data, set by an educator at the beginning of the year for all or a subgroup of students. Appropriate national, state, or district-developed assessments should be used where available; teachers may also use collaboratively developed assessments, including portfolios. For SY13-14:
· Teachers of tested grades and subjects will create at least one SGO
· Teachers of non-tested grades and subjects will create at least two SGOs”
Teachers of Mathematics and/or LanguageArts in grades 4-8 will also be assessed according to student growth on state tests (currently the NJ ASK). For these teachers, Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) will comprise an additional 35% of their annual evaluation.
Teachers for whom SGPs can be calculated will have the remaining 50% of their evaluations determined by observation reports. Teachers without SGP data will have the remaining 85% of their evaluations determined by observation reports.
Principals will be evaluated based on a combination of school-wide attainment of SGOs and (where applicable) SGPs, as well as observation and attainment of administrative goals.
For more information, please click on the tabs to the left.
