Bill Gates: “Don’t Rush Teacher Evaluations. Do It Right”,
The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s excellent education reporter, Maureen Downey, posts Bill Gates’ speech to the Education Commission of the States conference in her GetSchooled blog. Gates’ foundation is funding a teacher evaluation pilot program in Hillsborough county. Many will find his comments to be critical of the Florida’s rush and hectic application of SB 736:
Right now, we are funding pilot programs in five urban school districts, working with them to develop teacher evaluation and improvement systems. This is the heart of our work. Developing a great teacher improvement system is truly difficult – because there are no models. The country’s teachers have been working in systems where almost everyone gets a good evaluation — and almost no one gets any feedback. That’s the key point. Our teachers get no feedback – no guidance on how to get better…………..But we need to remember: A new teacher evaluation system is not automatically a good thing. If states and school districts feel pressured to rush out