Bill proposes delay in using student growth for evaluations
The proposal would be a significant – if temporary – change in the evaluation system created by Senate Bill 10-191, the educator evaluation law that the Denver Democrat successfully steered through the legislature four years ago.
The SB 10-191 system requires that principals and teachers be evaluated every year, half based on “professional practice” and half based on student academic growth as shown by scores on both state tests and a variety of local tests.
The law also requires that teachers rated as ineffective or partially effective for two consecutive years lose non-probationary status.
District systems that conform to the law debuted statewide this school year. But it’s a “practice” year in the sense that low evaluations don’t start the clock for teachers.
The system is set to go into full effect in the 2014-15 school year.
Johnston’s bill, expected to be introduced as early as Thursday afternoon, would give districts the option of using or not using academic growth next year. So districts could choose to make growth count for half of evaluations, or they could base evaluations solely on professional practice. Districts also could choose to use growth data for any percentage below 50 percent.
However, teachers who receive ineffective or partially effective evaluations would be docked for one year toward loss of non-probationary status.
Under the bill, the original SB 10-191 system would go back into effect in 2015-16, with teachers and principals based half on professional practice and half on student growth.
Johnston told Chalkbeat Colorado that the reason for the proposed change is the coming switch in state tests from the current TCAP system to the new CMAS system, which will include multi-state PARCC tests based on the Common Core Standards in language arts and math.
Those tests will first be given in the spring of 2015, but results won’t be analyzed and available until at least the autumn of that year. That makes it difficult to use those results for evaluations of teachers in the 2014-15 school year.
The change in tests also will create a gap in growth data, which is built from student tests results across multiple years.
Johnston has the support of the Colorado Education Association for the bill and has bipartisan sponsorship, including Rep. Carole Murray, R-Castle Rock, who was a cosponsor of SB 10-191.