Schools Matter: Giving Up RttT Bribes to Maintain a Real Teacher Evaluation Plan

Schools Matter: Giving Up RttT Bribes to Maintain a Real Teacher Evaluation Plan

Giving Up RttT Bribes to Maintain a Real Teacher Evaluation Plan

by Jim Horn

From Michael Winerip for the New York Times:

By MICHAEL WINERIP

ROCKVILLE, Md. — The Montgomery County Public Schools system here has a highly regarded program for evaluating teachers, providing them extra support if they are performing poorly and getting rid of those who do not improve.

The program, Peer Assistance and Review — known as PAR — uses several hundred senior teachers to mentor both newcomers and struggling veterans. If the mentoring does not work, the PAR panel — made up of eight teachers and eight principals — can vote to fire the teacher.

Sitting in on two cases last week, I could not tell from the comments which of the panel members were teachers and which were principals. In one of the cases, 11 of the 12 panel members present voted to follow a principal’s recommendation and discipline the teacher; in the other, they decided in a 10-to-2 vote to reject a principal’s recommendation and support the teacher.