Ocean City Helps Shape Statewide Teacher Evaluation System

Ocean City was one of 30 pilot districts statewide to test new ways to assess the effectiveness of teachers, and state Department of Education officials gathered at Ocean City High School on Wednesday to train educators in the resulting new evaluation process.

On March 6, the state DOE proposed detailed regulations to the state Board of Education for evaluation systems that will begin in the 2013-14 school year.

The new evaluation system comes in an era of school reform that attempts to hold schools more accountable for the success and improvement of students. The tenure reforms are part of the TeachNJ Act that became law in August 2012.

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• Read more about the TeachNJ Act
• Read details of the new teacher evaluation system

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On Wednesday in Ocean City, state DOE representatives outlined the new program's goals: to create an evaluation system "that would actually help professionals improve in their craft" and to provide a clearer picture of teacher performance and accountability to administrators and the public.

The building blocks of the new evaluation system are observations of teachers (announced and unannounced by multiple observers) and measurements of students (based on standardized test scores and other measurable goals).

Student performance includes measurement of "Student Growth Percentiles" (SGP), which compares change on NJ ASK test scores among "students who began in the same starting place." The new system attempts to take into account many of the variables that could affect comparative test scores, including student and teacher mobility.

Student performance can also be measured by "Student Growth Objectives" (SGO), in which teachers and administrators can design their own measurable goals where standardized test scores might not apply.