Tennessee’s Department of Education is recommending changes to the state’s system for evaluating teachers. Such job reviews affect whether teachers get or keep tenure, and many have complained the new system is unfair.
One of the main criticisms of the year-old system is that not all subjects have statewide tests, which are supposed to make up a big part of a teacher’s job review. Instead, in areas like Kindergarten and gym, that part of the teacher’s evaluation depends on their school’s performance overall.
And that’s led more than a few teachers to complain whether they have tenure depends on students they’ve never met. Now the state says it’s found a good model for grading fine-arts teachers, which districts can put to work this fall. And the department says it’s working toward tests for high-school chemistry and foreign languages.
It also suggests subjects that aren’t tested instead shift more weight to classroom evaluations. But since the balance between the two is written in state code, whether it changes will be up to the state legislature.
Link to a PDF of the full report here.
The department also recommends simplifying the rubric for observing teachers in the classroom, and spending less time grading those who have already done well on evaluations and more time with those who need help. It suggests teachers whose students perform well above average be able to use those results as 100 percent of their evaluation. And it says state lawmakers should remove a prohibition on factoring in students with disabilities.
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