Louisiana’s schools will benefit from a more objective system of teacher evaluation

This afternoon the Senate will likely consider the Value-Added Educator Evaluation Bill (HB 1033).  This may be the most important piece of education reform legislation under consideration this year.

Here are five reasons to act now in support of this bill:

• Teachers will be formally evaluated each year rather than every three years.
• Louisiana’s “value added” model calculates student academic growth by predicting how much a student should learn in one year and then comparing that to what they actually learn. This method factors in student information, such as socio-economic background, academic history, exceptionalities and other factors. This allows for a more objective analysis of teacher performance.
• Student academic growth will count for 50 percent of teacher evaluations with the remaining 50 percent based on traditional methods, such as principal observations, peer reviews and other indicators, as provided under current law. Evaluations will be half objective and half subjective, rather than entirely subjective.
• Teachers evaluated as “ineffective” will be provided with targeted professional development activities so they can improve. After they have been evaluated as “ineffective” for three consecutive years they will not be re-certified unless an appeal is made by the local school board.
• Currently, over 99% of Louisiana’s tenured teachers and 98% of non-tenured teachers earn “satisfactory” performance ratings.  This in a state with the highest dropout rate in the country and where over one-third of the students are performing below grade level.  Clearly, a more rigorous evaluation system is long overdue.

This bill has passed the House of Representatives and could go to the Senate floor today. Take a moment to tell your Senator to support HB 1033.