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“Teachers are the solution to the
problem, not the problem.”
Scott Laband
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Panelists agreed tying teacher evaluation to student achievement is difficult, but essential to improving teacher quality.
Kate Walsh, the President of the National Council on Teacher Quality, kicked off the panel by telling attendees there are two practical policy changes they can focus on to improve teacher quality: most states don’t list ineffectiveness as a reason to be fired, and getting rid of multiple appeals. “You need to make it easier to dismiss folks-- without addressing that in state law, any effort to put in meaningful evaluations is going to be seriously hindered,” she said.
Walsh also said it’s critical to raise salary levels at state departments of education, which tend to get people at the end of their careers and can supplement their salary with a pension. “We should focus on getting young, energetic talent into those departments,” she said.
Tying teacher evaluation to student growth
Darren Reisberg, the Deputy Superintendent and General Counsel for the Illinois State Board of Education, said the biggest question on improving teacher evaluations is how best to define the factors for student growth.
Elizabeth Shaw is the Assistant Superintendent for the Office of Human Capital at the Louisiana Department of Education. She said the department has made “some pretty drastic changes” in the way it’s operating. “We have nine critical goals centered on student achievement and if we accomplish those goals, it will mean that every student in Louisiana is receiving a world class education,” she said.
Shaw also mentioned that Louisiana doesn’t yet have an organization in the PIE Network. “We need all the allies we can get in this incredibly difficult work,” she said. “For those states that have PIE organizations, that’s really fabulous. We really wish we had one.”
Landmark reform in Colorado
Scott Laband recently became Vice-President of Colorado Succeeds after serving as Legislative Director for Colorado Senator Mike Johnston while he sponsored the state’s groundbreaking “Great Teachers and Leaders” bill that reformed teacher evaluation and tenure. Laband says when Coloradans learned they didn’t win Race to the Top despite the bill’s passage, “there was a backlash, but the coalition understood that the legislation was never about winning Race to the Top, it was about doing what is in the best interest of Colorado’s children. That was true when the legislation was passed and it remains true today.” He said the coalition was powerful because it included not just education advocates, but also the business and the civil rights community. “The coalition is deep and wide enough to have considerable influence and remains committed to ensuring that the legislation is implemented as it was passed,” he said.
Incorporating value-added data to teacher evaluations has become one of the most contentious issues in education over recent months. Shaw said this can feel “vague, scary, and unfair to educators.” She said there’s a need to demystify this and evaluation reform in general by sharing information with educators.
When one of the summit attendees asked about the difficulty of generating good data with testing systems that weren’t designed for evaluating teachers, Walsh said while testing may not be very good, it’s still valid. Tests can predict if someone is going to graduate or get a job. Shaw agreed, saying, “If testing is good enough to make decisions on whether students are being retained, it’s good enough for us to make decisions about teachers.”
Laband said Colorado’s plan focuses on student growth over time, which is a valid and reliable indicator. If teachers demonstrate two consecutive years of ineffective performance, they will be reverted back to probationary status and can be dismissed.
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Elizabeth Shaw of the Louisiana
DoE said she wished her state
had a PIE Network member.
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Shaw said evaluating teachers could look like a process between a teacher and manager to determine goals and provide managers with discretion. “If you look outside teaching, managers are expected to make these types of judgment calls,” she said, Louisiana is still considering a variety of solutions.
District vs. state evaluation
Walsh said the NCTQ thinks trying to decide teacher evaluation on the state level is a mistake. “Measures need to be decided at the district level,” she said. “Districts should work out how much progress a student should make, with teachers defining progress in a common curriculum. It’s kind of messy, but you get a lot of teacher buy-in. You want your best teachers deciding progress. It’s possible to bring teachers more into process if you do it at the district level.”
When an attendee expressed concern that districts aren’t spending enough time on the human elements of training and goal-setting, Reisberg described how Illinois is using a recurring training program with support for teachers.
Implementation challenges
Implementation has been the hardest part of this process in Louisiana, according to Shaw. “After not winning Race to the Top, we reached out to our participating LEAs and 30 LEAs said ‘we still want to do it, even without the extra funding.’ Those LEAs are part of our Trailblazer program and have made strong commitments on implementing human capital and turnaround strategies,” she said.
Laband says it’s important to identify high performers so you develop master teachers who can pass along their knowledge by mentoring other teachers, and you can reward them with increased pay for taking on additional responsibility. Laband says Colorado’s new law makes it clear that “teachers are the solution to the problem, not the problem.” He added, “At the end of the day, this elevates the entire profession.”
When an attendee mentioned that most teachers are fearful and uncertain about value-added data, Shaw admitted it can seem “incredibly complex.” She said the first step is helping teachers understand the formulas.
Reisberg advised adding teachers rather than just union leaders to any advisory council on teacher evaluation. Advance Illinois plans on holding meetings with teachers to explain the state’s new process.
