Clifton District Evaluation Policy
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Clifton Public Schools Educator System
Clifton Public Schools Board of Education recognizes that the continuing evaluation of tenured teaching staff members is essential to the achievement of the educational goals of this district. The purpose of a program of evaluation will be to promote professional excellence and improve the skills of tenured teaching staff members, improve pupil learning and growth, and provide a basis for the review of teaching staff member performance. Clifton Public Schools Evaluation System follow regulation detailed within the TeachNJ Act and AchieveNJ.
AchieveNJ guidance states that educator effectiveness can and should be measured to ensure our students have the best teachers in the classroom. Evaluations should always be based on multiple measures that include both learning outcomes and effective practice. To avoid penalizing teachers who work with our highest-needs students, evaluation criteria should be based on student progress and not absolute performance. Timely feedback and quality professional development, tied to evaluations, are essential to help educators continuously improve. Evaluation and support systems should be developed with significant input from educators. Tenure and other forms of recognition should be based on effectiveness.
Student learning will be evaluated through a variety of measures, including both traditional assessments and portfolios of student work, and will never be based on a single test score alone. Teacher evaluations will be assessed on two different student growth indicators – Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs), which are based on the NJ ASK test through 2014 and PARCC beginning in the spring of 2015, and Student Growth Objectives (SGOs), which educators set with approval from their supervisors, and track over the course of a school year. Similarly, principals will be measured on school-wide SGP scores, the aggregate SGO scores of teachers in their schools, and Administrator Goals, which are measurable goals of school-based student performance that the principal sets with his or her superintendent – such as graduation rates or scores on AP courses.
Each district has created a District Evaluation Advisory Committee. Clifton’s DEAC together with the Board of education selected the Danielson Model for teacher Observation. The Danielson Model is based upon four domains of best instructional practices with the intention of improving student outcomes through engaged instruction. This model and its related rubrics guide all teacher evaluation and observation. Clifton’s DEAC together with the Board of education selected the Levels of teaching Innovation Model (LoTi) for administrator evaluation. Both systems work together in the Teachscape system to provide a cohesive program of teacher and administrator guidance to support instruction.
All Observations of instructional practice in Clifton will be conducted according to Danielson and LoTi evaluation instruments. Observations of teachers will be conducted by principals or other supervisors who have been appropriately trained on the Danielson Model, and all teachers will have at least three observations. New teachers and those in need of extra support will also benefit from multiple observers. In evaluating an administrator’s instructional practice, LoTi observations will be conducted by the superintendent or his designee and may include a school walk-through and observations.
The TEACHNJ Act delegates to the Department of Education and Commissioner the authority to set the standards for evaluation systems, including the relative weights given to the components of educator evaluations. For teachers, the regulations differentiate between teachers of tested and non-tested grades and subjects. Each year, the Department will post the weights for the next school year by April 15. For the 2013-2014 school year, the following weights will apply:
Teachers in Tested Grades and Subjects:- 35 percent based on Student Growth Percentile (SGP) data.
- 15 percent based on Student Growth Objective (SGO) data from 1 or 2 teacher-set SGOs
- 50 percent based on classroom observations.
Teachers of Non-tested Grades and Subjects:
- 85 percent based on classroom observations
- 15 percent based on SGO data from two teacher-set SGOs.
Principals, Vice-Principals (VPs), and Assistant Principals (APs):
- 30 percent of a principal's overall evaluation rating is based on the observations of a principal's on the-job performance by the superintendent, or his designee
- 20 percent is based on a state-developed leadership rubric measuring how well a principal implements the new evaluation system
- 50 percent is based on various measures of student achievement, which depend on the type of school the principal leads and the availability of SGP data:
- 10 percent is calculated by taking the average of teacher SGOs
- 40 percent is a combination of the school-wide SGP score and the Principal Goal score.
- The balance of these weights depends on whether a school leader is identified as a Multi Grade SGP Principal, a Single-Grade SGP Principal, or a Non-SGP Principal.
AchieveNJ is New Jersey's educator evaluation and support system to provide administrators with critical tools for recognizing effective educators and identifying meaningful opportunities for professional growth.