CASTLE ROCK, Colo.—Teachers in Douglas County say a new evaluation system that ties ratings to pay raises is unfair.
Fourth-grade teacher Cheryl Murphy is among the educators at Trailblazer Elementary School being re-evaluated after the Douglas County School District determined that the high marks she got on her job review may not be valid. School officials got suspicious when too many teachers were rated highly effective during the first round of evaluations, she said.
Officials concluded the evaluation process must not have been administered appropriately after about 70 percent of the teachers at Trailblazer were rated highly effective, but at some other campuses in the school district, none got the coveted rating, Murphy said. The average for campuses in the school district was about 15 percent.
Sedalia Elementary School principal George Boser said parents who are protesting the evaluations at his school have their hearts in the right place, but they do not always get the complete picture.
“There are expectations that sometimes parents don’t see about how does a teacher go about planning,” Boser said. “How does a teacher go about assessing what kind of instructional activities are incorporated in the day-in and day-out process? You can’t just say, ‘I really like that teacher. Therefore, they’re highly effective.'”
Starting in August, all school districts in Colorado will begin implementing a new state-mandated evaluation system. The state will create minimum requirements for conducting teacher evaluations, but each district can create its own system as long as it meets or exceeds standards set by the state.
According to the Denver Post ( ), the evaluation system is also drawing rebuke from some parents who say it has created an inconsistent measure of educator performance and pushes some of their favorite teachers out of the school district.
Teachers can be rated as ineffective, partially effective, effective and highly effective under the new system developed by the school district. Pay raises are based on the evaluation rating and on the market value that the school district has placed on each teacher’s position.
Teachers at Trailblazer are being re-evaluated by various three-member principal panels after district officials said the school’s principal, Linda Schneider, could not provide enough evidence to support the ratings she gave teachers.
Schneider, who is retiring this year, said she followed an extensive process to evaluate her teachers over the course of a year that included multiple classroom visits, goal-setting and follow-up with staff to assess progress. She stood by her evaluations and said the district did not indicate that it disagreed with her assessments until recently.
“My job as an educator, eight years ago when I came to that school, was to get rid of the ineffective teachers, not only from our school but our district,” Schneider said. “The staff we have is a high-quality staff.”
———
Information from: The Denver Post,
