Schools work on model for evaluation

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By Kelli Gauthier kgauthier@timesfreepress.com

The day after Tennessee public schools hit the $500 million jackpot, Hamilton County administrators began work on a pilot teacher evaluation system that could become a statewide model.

Figuring out a way to evaluate teachers every year was one piece of legislation approved during a special General Assembly session in January. The new legislation allowed Gov. Phil Bredesen to compete for the federal Race to the Top competition, which Tennessee won with Delaware on Monday.

Normal Park Museum Magnet principal Jill Levine was named by Gov. Bredesen to a 15-member committee whose primary goal is to determine what the new evaluation system will look like. In August, the district will pilot a new evaluation process based loosely on one a consultant showed local principals earlier this year.

Currently, if a high school principal does a formal evaluation of a teacher, they go into a classroom three times for the entire 90-minute class period. The new model likely would have an administrator stop by every classroom for 10 minutes at a time, 10 to 12 times a year, Ms. Levine said.

“I think it will allow us to be much more in touch with what’s going on in every classroom on a daily basis,” she said. “Teachers would get much more feedback and more often.”

Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Jim Scales said the new method hopefully will change the focus of teacher evaluations.

“We don’t think (the current model) leads toward quality instruction in the classroom. It’s more of a compliance document,” he said.

Public Education Foundation President Dan Challener, who helped write Tennessee’s application for Race to the Top, agreed with Dr. Scales, saying the new method will be better for teachers.

“If done well, there’s a great opportunity to make teacher evaluation something that’s helpful to teachers, rather than what it is too often now, a process that’s done to meet requirements,” he said.

But while better evaluations are part of Race to the Top, the money itself is not designed to shore up the system’s budgetary problems, Dr. Scales said.

“Race to the Top is not designed to address any overall budget issues that a district might have,” he said. “It’s designed to allow districts to do some reform measures that budgets wouldn’t allow them to do otherwise.”

Melissa Striker, who teaches first grade at Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts, said administrators at her school are in and out of her classroom all the time. A good principal is in touch with what’s going on in the classroom, said Ms. Striker, who added that she appreciates the administration’s feedback.

“That’s not really anything different. It’s nothing new in our building,” she said.

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