New Teacher Evaluation To Be Tested

Starting in the fall, teachers at selected schools statewide will be evaluated based on a combination of student improvement on test scores, classroom observations and other measures. The evaluations will be part of a test program, which will not have any stakes for teachers — yet — and will be used to try out and improve the evaluation system.

The system will be expanded to all schools in the fall of 2013 and will then begin to have stakes for teachers. Teachers rated “ineffective” or “minimally effective” under the proposal would be given support to help improve their teaching and might be fired if they do not get better. The system is still in draft form.

A draft administrative rule will be released to the public Friday, launching a 30-day public comment period. The draft is based largely on a bill that passed the state House of Representatives with a strong majority during the most recent legislative session but died in the Senate.

“We’re utilizing the bill that really went through a healthy dialogue and compromise and a year and a half of work,” state education chief Hanna Skandera said Wednesday. “I believe we’ve got some healthy challenges, but I believe they’re worth taking on.”

Skandera is chairing an advisory committee of teachers, principals and others who will meet throughout the summer to finalize the rule. They will continue to meet throughout the year, to evaluate the pilot and finalize the evaluation system. That panel went over the draft rule for the first time Wednesday.

Under the draft rule, which could see minor changes before its public release Friday, teachers whose students take the state Standards-Based Assessment would have 35 percent of their evaluations based on how much their students’ test scores improved over the previous year. This would be calculated based on a formula that accounts for factors like poverty and whether students are learning English, and it would be based on three years of data to increase reliability.

Another 15 percent of these teachers’ evaluation would be based on other measures of student academic growth, which districts can develop themselves with the approval of the Public Education Department. Another 25 percent would be based on classroom observations, and the final 25 percent would be based on other measures of teacher quality, which districts will have discretion in choosing and developing.

The system will be different for teachers whose students do not take the SBA, which tests math and reading in grades 3-8, 10, and 11. For teachers who don’t teach those subjects or grade levels, 50 percent of evaluations will be based on other measures of students’ academic progress, which districts can determine. The rest of the evaluation would be the same, based on classroom observations and other measures.

Schools in Aztec, Bernalillo, Las Cruces and Los Alamos have signed on to the pilot. So have certain schools that received federal School Improvement Grant money, including Ernie Pyle Middle School in Albuquerque.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal