The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
Virginia's weak teacher accountability provisions are getting a fresh look.
According to plans presented to the state Board of Education on Thursday, new guidelines would require evaluations to consider student growth as a "significant" factor.
Current law only requires evaluations to be conducted every three years and does not tie them to pay.
The state Department of Education plans to design new research-based evaluation models over the next few months. Officials hope to try out the models next year in school divisions with low-achieving and high-poverty schools.
State Superintendent Patricia Wright said the models must be strong enough to allow schools to use evaluations to make performance pay decisions, if they so choose. "It is not a mandate," she said. "I've told our educators this is something we will do with them, not to them."
The plans were part of Virginia's failed first round application for Race to the Top federal funding. The work will be funded from other federal sources.
The state also won $17.5 million in May to develop data systems that will allow it to tie student and teacher performance. Virginia has been tracking student performance for 15 years with its Standards of Learning accountability program.
James W. Lanham, the state's director of teacher licensure and school leadership, said his team will bring evaluation models to the Board in January or February. He said his goals are better professional development, lower teacher turnover and more equitable staffing.
The department also is moving forward on new guidelines and accountability procedures for virtual schools serving multiple districts. The issue of how the entities that run them will be paid is being left up to the General Assembly.
"We need to make sure, ultimately, that what is provided is good for the kids and is going to improve their learning and test scores," said Lan Neugent, assistant superintendent for technology.
Several board members also said they hoped to improve on the structure that has been used for federally mandated tutoring services. They learned Thursday that tutoring has had little effect on student performance over the past few years. Schools that miss certain federal benchmarks, including one in Suffolk, must offer tutoring from approved vendors.
Wright said Virginia's reform efforts on teacher evaluations and alternatives such as charter, lab and virtual schools should answer critics.
"Are we standing on the sidelines? Not at all. We have the ball, and we're running with it."
Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com
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Teachers need to teach...and stop blaming parents!!!!
I am so sick of hearing Teachers BLAME parents. Teachers listen up, YOU GET PAID TO DO A JOB...SO STOP BLAMING EVERYONE ELSE FOR YOUR FAILURES AND TEACH!
Student growth is the best way to evaluate a teacher.
That would require knowing the student. Test scores are good for an image of the student's relative progress, but are limited for teacher evaluation.
It is the factory approach to education that is the rot in our educational systems. Until society in general is willing to make a total commitment to each student, private, public, whatever, eduction is just going to be a political football for politicians, ideologues and crack pots.
Children First
"Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense." -Sam Seaborn, The West Wing #18 "Six Meetings Before Lunch".
What the???
wow - what does one say to this post??? i'm so amazed at it that i don't what to say other than absolutely no wayyyyy...
as for
as for professional development, teachers are not the only class of workers that must have annual CPE in order to retain their state license, must professional occupations have these types of requirements, many much more stringent than what teachers are required to have.
hmmmm
"Our school system has not had a raise, step, or cost of living increase in two years."
Gee and in the private sector the only guaranteed raise we receive is sell yourself to a new employer. Must be nice to have all these built in raises even if they are reduced or put off for time to time, at least you know that at some point you will get a raise for just showing up.
Tie the administrator’s
Tie the administrator’s performance evaluation and pay to feedback from teachers they supervise. Tie the parents support checks to their students scores, homework completion and attendance. Don’t try to put this “pay for performance” soley on the backs of the teachers.
Think of Education as a four-legged table supported by teachers, parents, administrators and students. If one or more legs are broken, the table falls down. Sometimes you just can’t fix stupid on the part of one of the legs of this table.
thinkbefore you speak
You miss my point. First off I come from a family of educators. My mom taught school, my son teaches in a title 1 school. Both my wife and I both were educators but have moved on to other opportunities. I understand all teachers have bachelors, most masters and many beyond that. My point is that I see too much whining fm teachers about working beyond 8 hours a day, complaining about their boss and often co-workers. A teacher's lounge is often the cattiest place on the planet. I left the classroom to move up and make more money and am now in the private sector. I knew I would work harder and longer to do so. I have a problem with teachers(and others in different jobs) who complain about their pay and working conditions but continue teaching. You must decide if teaching is worth "the pain" and if it is suck it up...just like every other profession. Doctors make a lot of money--they also work 80 hours per week.
"were educators but have
"were educators but have moved on to other opportunities"..."Doctors make a lot of money--they also work 80 hours per week" It's painfully obvious to me that whatever you DID to call yourself an educator was not the job of a teacher. You have no idea what it takes to run an effective classroom if you think teachers are "whining fm teachers about working beyond 8 hours a day" Hours of planning, paper grading, parent phone calls, in-services, Saturday remediation sessions etc etc etc. If you truly cared about education and not the money, you would still be in the classroom (in whatever capacity) MAKING A DIFFERENCE instead of WHINING about it on this forum. Please come and join me. I could use the help. Not the whining.
True
You make a lot of valid points, but I think a lot of what you describe is the result of frustration caused by being scapegoats for things teachers cannot control. What you describe happens in any workplace where employees feel powerless and devalued.
I've worked for many years in the private sector as well as in teaching, and the stresses of teaching are unlike any other kind of pressure. In addition, I think it's much more common to find yourself working for an incompetent bully in education. These people are everywhere, but there seem to be more of them in education, and they are frequently very poorly educated themselves. They get crappy MA degrees in education administration from diploma mills and then get put in positions of authority to do their damage.
A lot of the very good teachers do quit or retire early rather than put up with this abusive nonsense. It's going to get worse as the witch hunt intensifies. Do you have a solution? How would you attract good people to the field of teaching?