Leadership Matters - February 2013

SB 7: Growing pains —–—————————————————————————

research world about the cause and effect relationship between the way to measure student growth and the evaluative rating of the teacher. In the November 2012, Educational Leadership Journal writers Goodwin and Miller state that there are several pitfalls in using value-added models. These include: 1) non- teacher effects may cloud the results; 2) data may be inaccurate; 3) student placement in classrooms is not random; 4) student’s previous teachers can create a

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using a standard research-based rubric for professional practice with at least 30% of the final evaluation rating based on the teacher’s students academic growth. The law also requires that teachers be reduced in force (RIF) by not only seniority but also by their performance ranking. The CPS Teachers union mobilized 90% of its

teachers to vote to strike (you may remember that the reform law had a requirement that 75% of all teachers had to vote to authorize a strike, this was a direct message to Chicago teachers by Stand for Children’s Jonah Edelman that they could not muster this type of support). The support and organizing ability of the Chicago teachers union was overwhelming when they went on strike. It seemed as if every Chicago teacher manned the picket lines on a daily basis and were very passionate about their cause. In my opinion the strike was

halo (or pitchfork) effect; and 5) teacher’s year-to-year scores vary widely. In the November 29, 2012 article in The Huffington Post titled “Teacher Evaluation Systems Not Fully Supported In Many States,” the Center For American Progress reports “ Still, arguably the biggest challenge posed by these mandated evaluation reforms is that the majority of teachers do not teach in tested subjects or grades, and as a result standardized student achievement data is not available to be used in their ratings.” This is another huge

obstacle that needs to be solved before districts can use student growth scores for teacher performance evaluation purposes. Until the research world can agree on a valid and reliable way to measure student growth and assign it to a particular teacher; administrators should be leery of the amount of weight put on this indicator. After all, a teacher’s career is in jeopardy. Interpretation of what “Distinguished” means in the Frameworks for Teaching (FFT) I think one of the most debated and misunderstood concepts from the Danielson Frameworks for Teaching (FFT) is the question of how many teachers will earn the “Distinguished” rating. I have heard administrators say no one is distinguished and teachers should be pleased to be rated proficient. Danielson herself states both in her book and in her videos that “…teachers visit “Distinguished” they do not live there.” Illinois administrators learned in their training that they are to record evidence in informal and formal evaluations. Evidence does not have bias, interpretation or judgment. I often describe observation evidence as the following: Observation

more about PERA and SB 7 than about wages, air conditioning and leaky roofs. Teachers knew that Mayor Emanuel had plans to close 80 to 120 schools and teachers were going to lose jobs. Many of these teachers would be veteran teachers who would have lower performance ratings than less experienced teachers. And not only would they lose their jobs they would lose their teaching careers. After all, who would hire a veteran teacher with say 25 years experience, two masters’ degrees, and the knowledge that this teacher had been RIF’d and had a lower performance- based rating than other less experienced teachers? The message for the rest of the state is that every school district will be dealing with these same issues as we head into teacher performance evaluation reality. My suggestion is to get your teachers involved now in the process. If you have not converted to the Danielson evaluation system start a pilot process as soon as possible and include your teachers every step of the way. Start looking at methods to measure student academic growth and talk to teachers about possible assessments and measures for these assessments. 2016 will be here before you know it so get started now. There is considerable debate in the assessment

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