Associated Press
TRENTON — School administrators in New Jersey districts that tested a new ways to evaluate teachers are bullish on the changes, but teachers remain skeptical, according to a report from Rutgers University.
The state Education Department released the results Tuesday from a study it commissioned on the changes. It also released a second study of the same districts from an advisory committee.
In a statement, Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said there are good signs and lessons from the reports, particularly that participating schools developed a culture where teachers and administrators wanted to improve.
“While we never expected the first year of the pilot to be perfect, we are motivated by the finding that educators are having more meaningful conversations than ever before about effective teaching, which of course is the first step to helping continuously improve student outcomes,” he said.
But the reports, which looked at 10 districts where new evaluation methods were tested in the 2011-12 school year, also found some complications.
In the tests, teachers were subjected to formal evaluations two or three times per year and informal evaluations twice per year.
The Rutgers study found that 74 percent of administrators in the test districts felt the new evaluations gave accurate assessments of teachers. But just 32 percent of teachers felt the same way.
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