Dive Brief:
- The Texas State Teachers Association has filed a lawsuit against Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to try to thwart the use of a new teacher evaluation system, Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System, or T-TESS, slated to begin in school year 2017-18.
- Teachers and union officials are upset because 20% of teacher evaluations are now based on "student growth measures."
- Yet districts aren't mandated to adopt the new teacher rating systems; it is only a suggestion and accountability measures can be decided at the local level.
Dive Insight:
Texas appears to be going against a trend in many states to unlink teacher evals from student performance and standardized testing.
An October 2015 report by the National Council on Teacher Quality, "State of the States 2015: Evaluating Teaching, Leading and Learning," said the majority of states have trouble with requirements over utilizing student growth and achievement in teacher and principal evaluations. California, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, and Vermont do not have a formal policy requiring student performance metrics in teacher evaluations. Some, like Bill Gates, advocate for test-based teacher evaluations.
North Carolina is scrapping test-based school rankings after opponents recently claimed that they led to cheating scandals, and also created too much pressure on educators. Such pressure was cited in Atlanta as a factor in a high-profile case involving dozens of educators who inflated student test scores, a move that ultimately led to felony convictions.