By Stephen Sawchuk
In what is probably the most aggressive Race-to-the-Top-inspired evaluation and tenure-reform bill to pass so far, Colorado's bill passed with most of the core details intact. It includes a requirement that teachers be deemed "effective" three years running to earn tenure and a provision that would cause teachers to revert to probationary status if they have two successive "ineffective" ratings. (An appeals process will be granted to such teachers.)
New York officials, in the meantime, have struck an agreement that would base 40 percent of the evaluation on student achievement. It also specifies that state standardized-test scores won't be more than than 20 percent of the evaluation with local measures forming the other 20 percent. The state legislature still must approve it.
The New York example is significant for another reason, though. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but it's the only one I know of so far that's mandated a student-achievement weight of less than 50 percent. That figure is so ubiquitous out there—Delaware, Tennessee, D.C., Florida, Indiana all have it or have proposed it—that a lot of people think it's part of the Race to the Top guidelines. (It isn't.)
Department of Education officials claimed there was no "magic number" to succeed in the teacher section of the Race to the Top application, but somehow all these lawmakers have fixed on one regardless.
There is not a whole lot of precedent for 50 percent. Some of the most famous extant evaluation/pay models, such as the Teacher Advancement Program, typically base only a quarter to a third of evaluations or pay on student achievement.
I can think of only one state so far that's left the student-achievement figure up to locals: Illinois. Even that law, though, has a trigger that would let the state board decide the figure for laggard districts. Want to bet what it will end up being?
No comments:
Post a Comment