Evaluate teaching, not test scores

Part two of our series providing an overview of the  Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction's ESSA work groups covers Effective Educators, outlining what the WEA believes this group should strive to achieve, and offering ways that you can get involved to ensure your voice is a part of this process.

OSPI is in the process of making key decisions about how the state will implement the new federal public education law – the Every Student Succeeds Act. There is no guarantee that ESSA will be better than the previous law, No Child Left Behind, it depends on how OSPI seeks and considers public input. So far, the agency has mostly included policy makers and administrators in the process. It is vital that educators with real classroom and school experience help drive the ESSA implementation in Washington so that it is a positive change for students everywhere. Read part one of this series on Student Assessment Systems.

Work group: Effective Educators

Key questions this work group is to address

• Define effective educators criteria and measures under Title II, Part A of the ESSA.
• Review allowable use of funds and recommend a state-level reservation of funds.
• Review state reporting requirements to inform definition and data decisions.
• Review approved WA Equity Plan and propose strategies for effective educators (replaces Highly Qualified plan).
• Review local reporting requirements to inform definition and data decisions.

The WEA perspective

Every child deserves access to caring, qualified and committed teachers and school staff, regardless of ZIP code. This work group is focused on the question of how do we ensure that minority students, and/or those attending high poverty schools don’t have disproportionately more teachers who are inexperienced, working out of their field, or who are ineffective. The group is also defining what those terms mean.

• WEA believes that we should continue to work with our existing evaluation systems rather than create new and disruptive replacements.
  • Evaluations should be based on a variety of inputs and measures.
  • Teacher skill and performance, not student test scores, should be a factor in teacher evaluation.
• Data collection and reporting should not change from our current comprehensive system.
• Evaluations are personnel records; sharing any information about teacher effectiveness must ensure individual privacy.
• Our measures of teacher effectiveness need to consider the dynamics of teaching and learning. Even in elementary schools, students may be taught by more than one teacher. As such, we should avoid any measure of effectiveness that can’t be attributed to a single teacher.

3 ways you can get involved

The number of educators on the OSPI work groups is very limited, so it is important that WEA members do all they can to be heard through public comment opportunities. Here's how you can help:

• Attend one of the regional forums being held by OSPI and wear red so you stand out as an advocate for public education.
• Submit comments via the state's feedback form.
• Share a copy of this Effective Educators work group paper with fellow members and allies.