A report released Dec. 21 by an IU research center suggested Indiana adjust its teacher evaluation system to focus on supporting and engaging educators to create a stronger school system for the state.
Annual teacher evaluations are required in Indiana because of a 2011 law, Senate Enrolled Act 1. The report finds these evaluations led to positive changes in the Indiana school district evaluation plans but there is room for progress in creating and executing high-quality evaluation plans.
The report recommends the Indiana General Assembly revise the Senate Enrolled Act 1 by focusing on new teachers, allowing districts flexibility in how they compensate teachers and rewriting the criteria for Teacher Performance Grants. The recommendations were made to implement plans that focus on the development of students rather than their performance.
The Indiana Teacher Appraisal and Support System staff reached out to education stakeholders during the 2015-16 school year to determine the successes and concerns of teacher evaluations to develop more effective teacher evaluation plans.
Indiana law requires educators be categorized as highly effective, improvement necessary and ineffective based on objective measures such as test scores.
The goal for teacher evaluations is not to remove teachers categorized as ineffective but to provide educators with information that will give them the opportunity to build on their strengths as well as their areas of improvement, INTASS said.
Educator evaluations should provide educators with information regarding the best practices and a rationale for improving teacher instructions for the success of both teachers and students, according to the report.
The report also recommends improvement of the training and certification of educators, allowing for experienced educators to be evaluated less, permitting raises for educators who need improvement and developing more consistent indicators of student growth for evaluations.
Rachel Leffers
