Frederick M. Hess's Blog
Too Fast and Too Furious When It Comes to Teacher Evaluation
by Frederick M. Hess • May 3, 2010 at 11:14 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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Much as I'd feared, preparations for round two of Race to the Top (RTT) seem to be impelling states to overshoot the mark when it comes to teacher evaluation and pay. Generally laudable proposals like Florida's Senate Bill 6 and Colorado's Senate Bill 10-191 suffer from the "fix the world in one pass" syndrome. Advocates who are waging an admirable fight to end or dramatically scale back hyper-rigid, industrial-era state policies governing teacher tenure and compensation display a worrisome tendency to mandate that, henceforth, teachers will be evaluated in large part on (thus far) largely nonexistent, hyper-rigid, value-added metrics. This is all playing out in Colorado right now, where SB 10-191 passed the state senate on Friday and goes to the state house this week.
Now, don't get me wrong. I supported Florida's Senate Bill 6 and heartily support Colorado's more measured 10-191, but the impatient rush to "fix" teacher quality in one furious burst of legislating is leading to troublesome overreaching and putting the cart before the horse. The result: hugely promising efforts to uproot outdated and stifling arrangements get enveloped in crudely drawn, sketchily considered, and potentially self-destructive