Racine Unified School To Pilot New Evaluation System

Julian Thomas Elementary in Racine will pilot a new teacher and principal evaluation system this fall, which will require their evaluations to consider not only their performance but their students’ performance as well.

The new system, which will be implemented statewide by 2014, replaces one that focused only on teacher and principal performance. During the pilot, three teachers from Julian Thomas will participate in the new system.

“We’re trying to be involved at every level of this so that we can be at the forefront of understanding of what will be changed,” said Stacy Tapp, communications director for Racine Unified.

State legislators passed a bill into law last year that defined an effective educator as someone who consistently uses “educational practices that foster the intellectual, social, and emotional growth of children.”

Jeff Weiss, elementary level superintendent for Racine Unified, said he sees the new system as “an opportunity to coach people to get better” at being effective teachers.

The law requires the new evaluation system to weight half of their performance evaluation on student achievement and the other half on educator practices. Teachers will receive individual teacher ratings. However, those ratings will be confidential and will not be publicly reported, according to the Wisconsin Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Request summary filed in February by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The U.S. Department of Education granted the request, which sought to exempt the state from having to meet federal education requirements outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act, last week.

Weiss said their current teacher contract sets out a framework for performance improvement for teachers and principals who don’t measure up to the District’s expectations. But they’ll be transitioning from a contract to an employee handbook after the contract has ended on June 31, 2013. The District just started putting together an employee handbook, which is expected to be implemented by the 2013-2014 school year.

“The real power is in getting better in our practices by having a better feedback system,” he said.

However, the student achievement portion won’t focus exclusively on standardized tests, but will consider student growth by taking into account the student’s demographics, gender, ethnicity and a statistical model of how they are growing.

“We’re asking the question how much closer did you get to the bar that you’ve set?” Weiss said. “The more I learn about it, the more I see a lot of promise,” he said.

But one of the caveats is relying too much on a student’s performance to determine a teacher’s performance, Weiss said.

“I like looking at the body of work from a teacher,” he said. “The test scores are just one piece of a student’s performance.  But by looking at their growth, we’re looking at what value are our schools adding to a child’s education.”