Teacher Evaluation as Data Use: Lessons From New Jersey’s Pilot Program

• In Event: Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Workforce Development and Management

Abstract

This paper uses New Jersey’s two-year Pilot Teacher Evaluation Program to explore the challenges of getting teachers to use evaluation data. It explores how teachers use data collected for both summative (employment continuation) and formative purposes. Study data come from surveys, interviews, and focus groups collected from 22 districts participating in the pilot. Teachers reported modest, diffuse uses of teacher performance observations in most districts. In some districts, downward calibration of rating categories were said to “set us up to be brought down.” More typically, teachers reported that teacher evaluation data had less influence than students, teaching materials, and other professionals. How material and social capital affects these uses/effects of teacher evaluation data is described.

Authors

• William A. Firestone, Rutgers University

• Timothy Lyle Nordin, Rutgers University