Getting Teacher Evaluation Right

Today Governor Haslam announced something that we’ve been calling for since 2014 – officially removing test scores from the 2015-2016 school year from teacher evaluation scores.

Back in 2014, we published a joint letter with TNEdReport calling for Governor Haslam to issue a one year moratorium on using test scores in teacher evaluations. This was written regarding the PARCC assessment that we were then slated to give in 2015, but the basic principal remains the same:

We propose three modifications to the current process to ensure a successful Common Core implementation.  First, we propose that the state board of education issue a moratorium stating that the first year of tests scores will not be used on teacher evaluations.  In the second year, test scores would increase to 15% of evaluation score and in the third year they would return to the full 35%.  This would allow teachers adequate time to adjust their instruction to the new standards and their accompanying assessments and give students a full three years to accustom themselves to the higher level of thinking demanded by the common core.

We also eerily prognosticated some of the challenges that the state and districts have encountered in implementing the new tests:

Additionally, over the years we’ve given students their yearly assessments in paper form.  They will need time to adjust to taking assessments online, which is a crucial component of the PAARC assessments.

In the same letter, we also advocated for a cause that we still hope the Governor will take up – using the one year moratorium to re-examine how we evaluate teachers in general.

In addition, during the moratorium year, the state Department of Education should seek feedback on the TEAM model from teachers around the state and make necessary changes as it relates to common core. These could include a broader rollout of portfolio-based assessments for teachers in related arts, for example.  It could also include ways to factor in teachers in non-tested, academic subjects, such as using AP scores in place of whole school value-added data.  If teacher evaluation is to be tied to student performance data, we should ensure that data represent students taught by the teacher being evaluated.

One of the great aspects of the newly passed federal legislation, ESSA, is that the federal mandate on linking evaluations to test scores is gone.  This allows states to get more creative with how they evaluate teachers. This is especially true for those teachers who do not have their own test scores and for years have complained of having to take the scores of their entire school, which seems patently unfair.

Here’s hoping the Governor makes a second common sense decision and takes advantage of this opportunity to re-examine how we evaluate teachers in our state not only this year but in all years to come

By Jon Alfuth

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