Figures released this month by the New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) revealed that are 2,900 teachers in the state with a rating of "ineffective" or "partially effective." If you're hoping to learn if your child's teacher is one of those instructors, you'll be out of luck. 

Teacher
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Anyone hoping to find the rating of any specific teacher will be disappointed because it is not publicly available.

"Any personally identifiable personnel data related to evaluation or otherwise is protected by law," explained Peter Shulman, assistant commissioner of Education and Chief Talent Officer at the DOE.

The statute was unanimously approved at all levels of government as well as by advocacy groups. As professionals, teachers have rights just like any other professional, according to Shulman.

"They have a right to have a personnel file that is unique to themselves, that is confidential and that can be shared with only his or her supervisor. Part of it's about respect, part of it's about integrity and part of it's about allowing the individual teacher to grow (and) to receive corrective action if need be," Shulman said.

The DOE planned to review evaluation data for trends and areas of improvement. The analysis showed that teachers with 0-2 years of experience were more than twice as likely to earn partially effective ratings and experienced teachers were more than twice as likely to earn highly effective ratings.

The evaluation data is very important and useful despite the fact that the public cannot access individual teacher ratings, Shulman said.

"By putting out this data to the extent that we're allowed, we're hoping to continue to learn about the process," he said. "We're hoping to continue to improve the evaluation system."

Overall, teacher evaluation statistics can be found at www.state.nj.us/education. Click on the “AchieveNJ: Educator Evaluation” icon.

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