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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > April > 15
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Scott Elliott: Unions missing chance to shape teacher evaluation
If you’re a fan of the way teachers are evaluated in most school districts today, you’re a rare breed.
So far, my informal survey of teachers, school administrators and policy makers has identified exactly zero people who think the process typically works well.
The usual methodology — an annual principal visit or two resulting in a generally benign review of the teacher’s work — has failed to improve instruction or address low performers with any significant success.
If there is, indeed, a consensus that change is needed, Ohio’s superintendents and teachers’ unions ought to be jumping at the chance to build new, better systems. But, so far, a majority of them have taken a pass.
Some local unions complain that the federal Race to the Top program — offering up to $400 million to Ohio — could force teachers to be evaluated solely on test scores. Those scores, they say, are affected by so many factors outside of the classroom that judging teachers entirely by student scores would be unfair.
If that’s what Race to the Top actually required, they might have a reason for concern, but it doesn’t. The federal grant — part of the Obama administration’s stimulus plan — merely requires that “student achievement” be a part of the evaluation process. How big a part is up to the local school district and the union to work out in collective bargaining.
Here’s what’s odd about union resistance to new types of evaluation — a big change is coming anyway because of revisions in state law. Through Race to the Top, unions could help shape new, better evaluation systems and grab some stimulus cash at the same time.
Gov. Ted Strickland’s signature education reforms, approved last year as House Bill 1, include a complete overhaul of teacher certification, which proposes a new process for evaluation of teachers coming into the profession beginning next year.
Not only is the new process built on good ideas, it just so happens that some of those ideas were incubated by none other than teachers’ unions themselves.
The basic framework looks like this: In 2011, new teachers will have to undergo a four-year “residency,” during which they are mentored by an experienced “lead” teacher. The resident teacher can progress through three other license levels: “professional” teacher, “senior professional” teacher and, finally, “lead” teacher.
Already, the law calls for a review — which will include student test performance as a factor — before a teacher can progress to the next certification levels during a seven-year trek toward tenure. The exact nature of the review is still being developed. Questions about the additional duties and responsibilities of higher- level teachers, and the possibility of extra pay, are being worked on, too.
Models for this system can be found in cities like Cincinnati and Toledo, where teacher unions helped invent the peer-review evaluation processes now in place.
Take Cincinnati. Reviews there are done annually and an extensive comprehensive review every five years. The district already has a career ladder with lead teachers reviewing less experienced peers who teach their subjects (as opposed to principals reviewing everyone, regardless of whether their expertise matches the teachers’).
OFT President Sue Taylor, former head of Cincinnati’s union, said data showed this system was more effective at removing underperforming teachers from the classroom than when administrators alone handled the task.
“A number of our locals are engaged in outside-of-the-box activities and we are anxious to move in that direction to bolster House Bill 1,” she said.
The two statewide teacher unions — the Ohio Federation of Teachers and the Ohio Education Association — both are supportive of House Bill 1’s teacher-evaluation reforms. They’ve also backed efforts by local unions to apply for Race to the Top. So it’s odd that many local unions have so far backed away. They should see Race to the Top as an opportunity to embrace and shape reforms that are good for teachers and that are coming one way or the other.
It’s just a bonus that signing on could lead to some federal stimulus money coming their way, too.
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