May 07, 2010 06:50 PM UTC

Great commentary from a young teacher supporting SB 191

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• by: lauriehzeller

(The topic du jour, for sure – promoted by Colorado Pols)

A DCTA and CEA member, I am in my third year of teaching and have spent the past three years, and several before that, contemplating the baffling policies related to the life cycle of a teacher. From the preparation and hiring to the evaluation, development and infrequent dismissal, our system is broken. Our broken system continues to produce: students who are unprepared for college, if they can get there; a persistent gap in the achievement between white and minority students and lower and higher income students and abysmal teacher retention rates. Each of these components alone is a problem, but combined they are a crisis.

I support Senate Bill 191, the Educator Effectiveness Bill, because it empowers teachers – it creates an evaluation system based more on the very thing I was hired to do: produce student learning.  

For too long we have had an evaluation system and opportunities for professional development disconnected from what really matters: our results. I strongly believe that half of my evaluation should depend on multiple measures of student growth, including local assessments and student work: this bill allows for that.  

We know that the single most important factor in a child’s achievement is his or her teacher. At a school like Bruce Randolph, where we serve a student population that is almost entirely low income and minority, where students often come to us reading below grade level, where the deck is stacked against them and their families, they need the most effective teachers possible.

We also know that teachers need instructional leaders who are invested in the academic growth of their students. We need principals to also be evaluated on the growth of their students: this bill allows for that.

Sadly, I believe this bill has been misrepresented as an attack on teachers. I don’t believe anything could be further from the truth. Currently, teachers exist in a system where their evaluations are dependent upon subjective measures, where educators receive professional development that may or may not have any impact on the learning of their students. This proposed legislation would provide more detailed evaluations, based in part on student outcomes that could then be used to identify more targeted professional development and support.

Our students and educators deserve a better public education system and we must not delay, for every year we wait, another year goes by in the current broken system, which we know is doing a disservice to our educators and students alike.  

(cross-posted from edthusiast at Square state)