New Teacher Evaluations Hit Hopatcong This Fall

According to the Hopatcong Board of Education, there are some good ideas in the new teacher evaluation process that begins in the fall, but there are some bad ideas that could brings into question the entire purpose of  the change.

Both of theses concepts were discussed Monday when Superintendent Charles Maranzano outlined the details for the Board of Education.

Maranzano said he and the board agreed that putting in place a fresh evaluation process is a key step to improve education results for students, but questioned the effectiveness of the plan put forth by the state.

The shift in teacher evaluations started in 2010 and resulted from both state and federal actions, Maranzano said. Small pilot programs were conducted in New Jersey which resulted in many comments. Maranzano said it is possible that the sheer volume of comments could slow the state Board of Education evaluation of the new system.

According to Maranzano, chief among the concerns raised, was not the need for a new evaluation system, but how administrators and teachers would have the time to quantify all the new observations and data required

“The rollout will be difficult,” he said.

The Hopatcong board expressed concern about the potential for many extra hours of paperwork that could distract principal and teachers from their regular duties.

Among the positive  changes will be the inclusion of more time for classroom observations of teachers, and the greater use of data in the evaluations, which will provide measurable standards, he said.

Under the old assessment process, teachers were observed one time, he said.

“It is a very limited tool,” Maranzano said. “It can not be an effective tool.”

One 40-minute classroom session was observed, equaling five-one-thousands of the time a teacher spends in a classroom, he said.

Under the new evaluation process, there will be three observation sessions for untenured teachers at least one session annually for tenured teachers, he said.

Among the bad ideas in the new process, Maranzano said, is the lack of state  funding to help districts cover the administrative costs of running the new system.

Maranzano said the system is "essentially an unfunded mandate" with a heavy reliance on standardized test scores. 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation, even when student scores from the evaluation year won’t be available until the following year, relies on these scores, Maranzano said. 

Maranzano also said a negative was the time crunch in implementing, the system is supposed to be in place in September when all the new requirements won’t be issued until at least October.

Maranzano said the district has chosen an evaluation model that is effective, yet provides some flexibility.

The model is not “a one-size-fits-all approach,” he said, and provides different definitions for specialists based on effective teaching research

The new teacher performance standards include evaluations of professional knowledge, instructional planning, instructional delivery, assessment of/for learning, learning environment, professionalism and student progress.

The methods to determine a teacher’s success in meeting these standards are:

1. Observations:

•Non-tenured teachers observed at least three times per year.

•Tenured teachers observed at least once per year.

•Additional observations at building administrator’s discretion.

•Observations last at least 20 minutes, include a post-conference.

•Participants in EE4NJ Cohort 2 have specific observation requirements.

2. Student Learning Objectives:

•Appropriate measures of academic progress are determined.

•Teachers set objectives for improving student progress based on the results of performance measures.

•Quality of the objectives and their attainment provide an important data source for evaluation.

3. Documentation Log:

•Includes both specific required artifacts and teacher-selected artifacts.

•Artifacts provide evidence of meeting selected performance standards.

•Provides teacher with opportunity to demonstrate quality work.

4. Student Surveys:

•Teachers survey their students using one of four survey instruments.

•Teachers enter summary of the results in their Documentation Log.

•Surveys provide additional data to teachers than can influence teaching strategies.

The state’s plan calls for  counting the students’ test scores as 50 percent of the evaluation and the other six measures as the  remaining 50 percent.

“That is problematic,” Maranzano said. “All the evaluations for a student’s progress come from a single test.”

Details of the district’s plans are available on the school’s website.  Look for the link to the “Achieve New Jersey New Evaluation System”.