FAYETTEVILLE — Teachers long have been considered satisfactory or unsatisfactory when their classroom performance is evaluated, but that’s changing in many states, including Arkansas.
“About 98 percent of evaluations are satisfactory but in name only,” said a Washington education researcher who specializes in teacher issues.
Matthew M. Chingos of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution said teacher evaluation systems need to be improved to determine which teachers are more effective. Those teachers need to be encouraged to stay in the profession, especially in high-poverty areas, he said.
Chingos was in Fayetteville on Friday as part of the Education Reform Lecture Series at the University of Arkansas.
“Money is only a small part of it,” Chingos said. Teachers also want to feel appreciated for their efforts.
At A Glance
Act 1209
Act 1209 of 2011, sponsored by Rep. Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia, directs the Arkansas Department of Education to develop rules and regulations to restructure the current method of evaluating Arkansas public school teachers by establishing the Teacher Excellence and Support System.
Source: Staff Report
In a study of Florida teachers in the fourth through eighth grades, Chingos found in many instances less effective teachers were moved from the tested grade levels to grades where students aren’t tested, such as prekindergarten, kindergarten and first and second grades.
The idea behind moving those teachers is they won’t have an immediate impact on student test performance. However, he said, that only lasts for about two years because those students will continue to move up the grades.
Teachers in the grades below the tested grades need to be laying a strong foundation for students before they move into the tested grades.
In Arkansas, Benchmark exams are given in the third through eighth grades and after specific courses are taken in high school. New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, New York are among the states developing new evaluation systems in which student test data is taken into account.
Seth Blomeley, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Education, said a law passed in the 2011 Legislature laid the groundwork for a new teacher evaluation system in which student performance is a major component.
“We’re still working through the details,” Blomeley said. The new system likely will be split with 50 percent of the evaluation based on external factors, such as student test scores, and 50 percent of the evaluation based on comments from supervisors at the building level, he said.
The evaluation system will be the first state system ever, said Hartzell Jones, deputy superintendent in the Springdale School District. Teacher evaluations are now performed using district criteria or standards.
A key piece of the new system will be the evaluating teachers who don’t have student test scores to consider. These are teachers whose students aren’t tested, such as in art, music, band and other courses.
Blomeley said rules and regulations on implementing the new system should be ready for a first 30-day public comment period in April. A second public comment period could be held if comments in the first period produce substantial changes. The new rules must be approved by the State Board of Education by Sept. 1.
Teacher and evaluator training on the new system will begin in the 2012-13 school year. The system will be tested in a few districts in the 2013-14 school year and fully implemented in the 2014-15 school year, Blomeley said.
“This is a good thing,” Jones said. “Teaching is what we are all about, who will learn and who will achieve. The goal is to get students on grade level or higher.”