Governor Phil Murphy has received the final report from the Educator Evaluation Review Task Force, established by legislation signed earlier this year. The Task Force was tasked with examining New Jersey’s annual educator evaluation process for teachers and principals.
The current evaluation model, under the 12-year-old Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey (TEACHNJ) Act, uses individualized feedback, targeted professional development, and data on student progress to rate educators in categories from ineffective to highly effective.
The Task Force, consisting of educators, stakeholders, and education policy experts, has worked over several months on a report detailing 15 recommended changes. These include streamlining the educator evaluation system, utilizing flexibilities under current laws more effectively, and enhancing focus on professional learning and student growth.
“The collaborative spirit of this Task Force has been inspiring,” said Governor Murphy. “Our educators play a vital role in our communities... That is why this process has been especially rewarding because we are hearing directly from our teachers... I want to thank the Task Force members who spent countless hours over the last several months examining the educator evaluation laws and regulations to come up with exciting recommendations to improve these practices.”
The Murphy Administration is taking immediate action by developing an implementation working group. This group will review the report, identify priority strategies, and collaborate with the Department of Education on guidance to enhance educator evaluation and reduce unnecessary administrative burdens.
“I want to express my deep gratitude to all the Task Force members for their dedicated efforts... paving the way for educators and the Department to collaboratively design improvements,” said Acting Commissioner of the Department of Education Kevin Dehmer. “The recommendations provided today will be further developed with a new working group.”
Information about stakeholder involvement in the implementation working group will be available in coming weeks.
