Stakes likely go up on teacher evaluations in Obama’s second term
By Tom Chorneau
Monday, November 26, 2012
Failure to win support of teachers for adoption of a new evaluation system based on test scores, once again doomed several of the state’s largest school districts in the federal Race to the Top competition earlier this month.
But as the Obama administration sets course on a second term, the stakes are likely to get a lot higher for states and jurisdictions unable to meet federal demands for more aggressive assessment of educator performance.
“The president got reelected and as far as we know his priorities for education reform haven’t changed,” said Bill Lucia, executive director of EdVoice, a Sacramento-based education advocacy group. “The education secretary is going to continue on and he is like-minded with the president that all kids should have an effective teacher. And they have not diverged from their thinking on this.”
Using tens of millions –sometimes more— in federal discretionary dollars, the Obama administration has for the past four years encouraged states to enact programs and principles aimed improving struggling schools. None of those