Student test scores expected to be a part of New Jersey teacher evaluations, what should Michigan do?
Before Scott Walker came along, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was leader must likely to draw the ire of teachers.
So it will be interesting to see the reaction to the new evaluation system unveiled this week by an administration task force that uses a mixture of student test scores and observations to evaluate teachers and could determine how much they are paid and whether they receive tenure.
Lisa Fleisher of the Wall Street Journal reports that the plan unveiled Thursday was immediately attacked by critics.
The controversial and vexing question of how to grade teachers is popping up in states across the country, prompting legal battles over methodology and whether or not to publish teachers’ scores, Fleisher wrote.
That’s driven largely by President Obama’s Race to the Top competition, which dangled millions of dollars as the carrot to get states to accept reforms. Linking evaluations to student achievement was a goal, and Michigan’s application was considered weakened by stipulations that local districts would negotiate what criteria would be used to measure teachers.
The New Jersey plan calls for half of a teacher’s score to be based on student performance, 40 percent based on effective practice and the remainder on other measures.
The task force, which included some union representative, issued a report calling teacher effectiveness the “most important in-school factor for improving student achievement,” Fleisher noted.
Teachers would share credit for meeting school goals, which would account for 5 percent of the overall score. Districts would determine how to observe teachers in action and would select from a variety of state and national tests to measure student performance.
Rutgers University professor Bruce Baker, blasted away on his School Finance 101 blog, saying he expected a a poorly written, ill-conceived rant about how to connect teacher evaluations to test scores growth scores and how it is imperative that a large share of teacher evaluation be based on growth scores. And I got all of that and more!!!!!
When it comes to critiquing the Task Force Report, Im not even sure where to begin. In short, the report proposes the most ill-informed toxic brew of policy recommendations that one can imagine, he wrote.
Michigan is moving down a similar path. Districts in late December were offered a timeline and instructions, saying that teachers and administrators must have input and the evaluations must include state and local measures of student growth as a significant factor.
The state plan says educator effectiveness labels will be used in decisions regarding promotion and retention of both teachers and administrators, including tenure and certification.
But, there are no statewide edicts handed down on exactly how to go about this, saying details will be locally determined.
So I ask teachers, what is a fair way to measure your effectiveness? What do you want to see your district include in your evaluation?
