Plan to grade teachers based on student achievement under debate
The west facade of the Pennsylvania state Capitol is seen Sept. 25, 2006, in Harrisburg. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Posted: Monday, May 21, 2012 6:00 am | Updated: 6:13 am, Mon May 21, 2012.
Posted on May 21, 2012
Calling it “one of the most important bills we will pass,” upper Bucks County state Rep. Paul Clymer is touting legislation to implement a statewide teacher evaluation system for school districts throughout Pennsylvania.
Clymer, R-145, chairman of the Education Committee, said the idea is to ensure that each classroom in the commonwealth has “the most qualified teacher for our school children to be the very best they can be.”
He said he hopes House Bill 1980, sponsored by Lancaster Republican Ryan Aument, will pass the House by June 30.
The measure would have 50 percent of an educator’s evaluation based on student achievement, calculated using results from statewide assessments and other student growth data.
The remaining portion of the overall evaluation rating, classified as traditional teacher practices, would include areas such as classroom observations, planning and teacher interaction.
Rather than be graded either satisfactory or unsatisfactory, as is the case in most districts today, teachers would be rated distinguished, proficient, needs improvement or failing.
“Our students have a right to a quality teacher in every classroom,” Aument stated in a press release. “Therefore, we must identify who those teachers are, we must retain them, we must encourage them, ensure students have access to them, and we must assist those teachers who are struggling.”
State Rep. John Galloway, D-140, was the only Democrat to side with Republicans in a 15-8 vote that moved the bill out of committee. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be for it when the whole House takes up the issue.
“I think this needs to be brought to the full House for a full debate,” he said. “This is a very important issue. We need to hear from everyone. In committee, I felt the debate was exhausted.
“There are some things about the idea I like, I’d just like to hear more about it.”
Ron Tomalis, Pennsylvania’s secretary of education, is pushing for the legislation. He has said that having 99.4 percent of state teachers rated as adequate last year shows “the evaluation system doesn’t help drive the instruction process.”
Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget proposal includes $3.7 million for implementation of teacher evaluations in the 2013-14 school year, supplemented by funding awarded to Pennsylvania through the federal Race to the Top grant.
The state’s Department of Education, citing a National Bureau of Economic Research and Harvard/Columbia study, said the most significant factor in the success of a student is the individual at the front of the classroom. Effective educators have the ability to increase a student’s lifetime earnings by $267,000.
Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Educators Association, said his organization is on record “for some time saying the teacher evaluation system in Pennsylvania needs to be improved.”
However, the PSEA has “raised concerns” about proposals like Aument’s that call for evaluations to include a high percentage of student performance.
“The bottom line for us is that teachers should be evaluated over factors they control,” he said. “Even the most statistically complex models of teacher evaluation based on student performance have not been reliable when it comes to student academic growth.”
Keever said the PSEA supports curriculum-based assessments, teacher-created assessments, student projects and portfolios, district-based pre/post-assessments tied to academic standards, and standardized test scores.
The Quakertown School District has been one of about 100 districts employing the program, first as a pilot and now in phase two and feeding its results to the state.
Superintendent Lisa Andrejko believes “it will raise the level of teaching” statewide.
“Look, I have certainly dealt with the political influences and mandates out of Harrisburg that have not been well thought through and become a hindrance. This is not one of them,” she said.
Every teacher in every Quakertown school has been evaluated under the new plan, Andrejko said, “which should tell you what we think of it. Teachers and administrators are really on the same page.”
Anita Serge, principal at Quakertown High School, said “it’s a very complete, analytical process. A process that really has a teacher reflect on their teaching skills and ways on which they can improve. This is about our students receiving quality education in every classroom. It’s meant to improve instruction.”
At a recent school board meeting Chris Roth, president of the district’s teachers association, said the evaluations are a lot more work but the teachers he’s spoken with say it provides a “clear picture of what they do and a clear picture if they have to defend what they do.
“There is more time and effort, but in the end I think it will produce better teachers,” he said.
4 comments:
I plan to grade Stay on Track based on Mihok, Worob,and Stout's performance. The grade so far is F MINUS no matter how many fake awards they give themselves before elections.
these people are a menace to society and anyone who votes for them are in the same class there is no room for this kind of creepiness in this town any longer
SHAME ON YOU! DON'T LISTEN TO THESE SMALL MINDED PEOPLE!! I'LL NEVER EVER EVER BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN BREAKING YOUR ARM!!!
The state doesn't want to fund public eduction, but they want to make it even harder on the teachers. It's going to be hard to find good teachers down the road 5 or 10 years after they scare off all the high school kids from going into education.
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