As mandated by the state, Osage Elementary School principal Robert Cranmer presented the Voorhees Township Public Schools board of education with a new teacher evaluation system for the coming year.
Implementing the Charlotte Danielson, “Framework for Teaching,” teachers will now be evaluated on four different domains, with a total of 20 subcategories under each domain and three to five elements under each subcategory.
The four domains of evaluation consist of planning and preparation, the classroom environment, professional responsibilities and instruction.
Last year, Cranmer explained those teachers were trained in both Domains 2 and Domains 3, classroom environment and instruction, respectively.
Cranmer also explained after the Sept. 25 BOE meeting that the rubric for each element clearly outlines what is required of a staff member for each score, which ranges from “unsatisfactory” to “basic” to “ proficient” to “distinguished.”
“The rubric outlines specifically what behaviors to show,” Cranmer said.
Cranmer also added that this new evaluation system was the best fit for the Voorhees school district because it allows teachers to reflect and evaluate their own performance as well as factor in their own comments, making the evaluation a more collaborative effort between teachers and administrators.
“They have more of an input,” Cranmer said.
As of this year, teachers will be evaluated once a year for tenure and three times a year for non-tenure.
Other teacher evaluation systems the district considered were the McREL’s Teacher Evaluation System, Stronge Teacher Evaluation System, and Marzano Teacher Evaluation. Cranmer also added that the Framework for Teaching is the most popular teacher evaluation for school districts in the region.
During the meeting, the board also honored eight of the 17 teachers retiring this year from the Voorhees school district, as well as two members of the Osage Elementary School faculty who have served the district for 25 years.
Superintendent Raymond Brosel Jr. also answered questions from the public in regard to overcrowding in the district’s schools, including Osage. Brosel said the board is currently working with staff on the issue, but plans to orchestrate an open forum meeting between parents and the board to discuss possible solutions.
