Westwood Teacher Evaluation Plan Approved For Statewide Use

A teacher evaluation instrument developed by the Westwood Regional School District is eligible to be used in schools across the state next year.

Westwood's teacher evaluation instrument was one of 20 approved by the New Jersey Department of Education and Westwood's administrator evaluation instrument was one of just 13 approved. Only a few instruments developed by New Jersey school districts were used. Most came from private companies.

"I think this is a significant accomplishment for the district," Acting Superintendent Rory McCourt said at a school board meeting last week.

A new law requires all districts to choose state-approved principal and teacher evaluation practices by the end of the year.

The approval means that the district will save some money, as other schools will have to purchase their evaluation forms from one of the state-approved vendors.

Districts will implement their new evaluations during the 2013-14 school year.

McCourt told Patch that district officials were happy with the evaluations they had already been using, so they adjusted the existing evaluation instruments to make them comply with the new law. He noted the work had been a "team effort" among administrators, teachers and the District Advisory Council.

The new law, signed by Gov. Chris Christie in August, is bringing several other changes to schools in New Jersey. Teachers will have to wait at least four years, instead of three, to obtain tenure. The law also aims to make it easier for districts to remove tenured educators who are "repeatedly ineffective" by having the state cover the costs —capped at $7,500 — of filing tenure charges.

A list of approved teacher evaluation instruments is available here and a list of approved principal evaluation instruments is available here.

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