Grading teachers proves difficult: Staffs at some of state's worst schools get gushing reviews
A first look at how effective teachers are across the state provides a clear picture of just how far school districts must go to have strong evaluation systems in place that give teachers the kind of feedback they need to improve.
The new state data find that about 97% of the state's 96,000 teachers were rated effective or highly effective during the 2011-12 school year -- the first year districts had to assign one of four ratings to teachers. Those ratings were: highly effective, effective, minimally effective or ineffective.
Some of the state's worst-performing schools doled out favorable ratings to teachers: 48 of the state's 146 priority schools -- so named because they are in the bottom 5% academically -- rated all of their teachers in the top two categories. Several said all of their teachers were highly effective.