Southern Regional School Teachers Do Well On State Teacher Evaluations

The Southern Regional school district fared very well in the state Department of Education's most recent state staff evaluations based on the 2015-2016 school year.

Of the district's 221 teachers in the district, 95 were rated "highly effective," according to the report. The remaining 126 teachers were rated "effective." The 7-12 district has a high school and a middle school.

Teachers and staff across the state were graded and categorized as “highly effective,” “effective," "partially effective" and "ineffective." The results were released last week.

The district’s ratio came out to just over 3.2, and it was ranked 308 out of 503 districts on Patch’s list, which is based on number of teachers per 100 students. (See the full list here.)

The state’s data from the 2015-2016 school year, according to a report from NJ Spotlight, shows nearly two-thirds of the state’s 112,000 teachers were found to be “effective” and another third were “highly effective” in the four-tier ratings used in the new system.

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.

Newark was the only school district that had "ineffective" teachers, according to the evaluation: 65. Only four school districts had "partially effective" teachers. They were:

• NEWARK, ESSEX 183
• CAMDEN, CAMDEN 71
• LONG BRANCH, MONMOUTH 18
• ORANGE, ESSEX 18