TEACHNJ: An Evaluation of Two Years of Implementation

In July 2009, the Obama administration lauched its $4.35 billion Race to the Top (RTT) Fund, providing states with competitive grants in an effort to reform education.One of the main conditions of this program was to award educational innovation.With this in mind, states enacted new legislation in the hopes of attracting more funding for their proposed programs.Although there were many levels of reform targeted by the RTT, of significance to this research is the emphasis placed on improving teacher effectiveness and measuring teacher performance via evaluation systems.The Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey (TEACHNJ) Act was adopted by the New Jersey legislature in August 2012 with the intent to raise student achievement by improving the quality of instruction.This research explores the impact the TEACHNJ Act has on teacher evaluations and professional development.A survey was administered to 1,235 public school teachers in New Jersey to ascertain teacher perceptions of the: (a) evaluation system in their school; (b) level of communication between teachers and administrators; and (c) availability, frequency, and effectiveness of professional development opportunities.The response rate was 21%.We found that formal evaluations are conducted infrequently with a varying degree of accuracy and impact.Nearly half of the teachers indicated that formal evaluations did not lead to improvements in their classroom.A majority of teachers questioned the administrative value of formal teacher evaluations, in particular the rewards and sanctions associated with the outcome of evaluations and a concern that poor performers were not sanctioned nor were effective teachers rewarded.We found that teachers perceive the greatest value to professional development, which is derived from peer mentoring and observations.We also found that professional development is the most effective when it is offered onsite, embedded in the classroom, continuous, and sustained over time.