The New Jersey Department of Education has set forward a new teacher and administrator evaluation plan for New Jersey schools to take effect in the 2013-2014 school year. The Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey (TEACHNJ) Act is being created to help improve instruction so that the students can learn more effectively.

As stated on State.NJ.US, the new teacher evaluation system, TEACHNJ Act, will evaluate teachers and principals based on many factors.

For teachers, many of these factors are similar to past evaluations, which included lesson plans and classroom observations. However, some of these evaluation factors are new to many schools and include student performance and test scores, student growth percentiles (SGP), and student growth objectives (SGO). SGP compare student’s grades for one teacher to that student’s grades for another teacher to see how well the teacher is doing his or her job; SGO is the process in which teachers impact students and help them reach their goals for that class or school year.

For principals, 30 percent of their evaluation will be based off of their overall job performance; 20 percent of the evaluation will be based off of how well the principal follows the state-developed leadership rubric that shows how well they implement the new evaluation system; and lastly, 50 percent of the principal’s evaluation will be based off of how well the principal leads the school and manages student growth percentiles.

Teachers and principals who receive low ratings during their evaluations face consequences.   These include teachers and principals possibly losing their jobs for a poor evaluation. According to NJSBA.org, teachers employed after August 6, 2012 will need to complete a district mentorship program and will receive ratings of “effective” or “highly effective” for the next three years. If a teacher, principal, or vice principal is rated “partially effective” on both annual summative evaluations and then receives the same rating the following year, the superintendent is required to file inefficiency charges and tenure charges on any teacher, principal, or vice principal.

According to a report on NJSpotlight.com, many teachers feel uncomfortable about the new evaluation system because they believe a teacher cannot be evaluated based on the students SGP because too many things go on in students’ personal lives that may affect their test scores and classroom performance. There has been so much opposition that some teachers and school officials throughout the state gathered at a board meeting in Trenton on March 8, 2013, wearing stickers that said “I care about kids,” opposing the TEACHNJ Act, according to a report on Nj.com.

As for the TEACHNJ Act, time will tell whether it has a positive or negative effect for New Jersey public schools.