Maplewood, South Orange Public School Teachers All ‘Effective’ Or Higher: DOE

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — According to the New Jersey Department of Education, all of Maplewood and South Orange's public school teachers were “effective” or "highly effective" in 2015 and 2016.

The New Jersey Department of Education once again has come up with a list that was developed under a relatively new teacher and administrator evaluation system, with educators in the 2015-16 school year graded on a scale of four measures.

The state identified the number of teachers and administrators in each school district deemed "highly effective," "effective," "partially effective" and "ineffective" and released the list last week. If nine or fewer staff received a rating of ineffective, the record was "suppressed" and not part of the data file.

• See related article: New Jersey Teacher Report Cards Released

In the South Orange-Maplewood School District, out of 465 ranked teachers, 252 were “effective” and 205 were “highly effective,” the DOE stated. Out of SOMA's administrators (principals, assistant principals and vice-principals), none were included in the data.

• See related article: South Orange, Maplewood Rank High On ‘Best Schools’ List

The evaluation system began after the state legislature passed a teacher tenure system five years ago that ultimately sought to identify the weakest and the best teachers. State law now requires every district to use a standardized evaluation system based on observed classroom practices and some measure of student performance.

• See related article: 10 Stories About Awesome New Jersey Teachers

With previous reporting by Tom Davis

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