Teacher evaluation plan one step closer to passing - Sun-Sentinel
The Palm Beach County School District on Tuesday received conditional approval from the state for its new teacher evaluation system, bringing it one step closer to having the plan put in place.
The revamp of the evaluation system is part of a mandate from a law signed by Gov. Rick Scott in March.
It requires that, by 2014, all Florida school districts have a salary schedule in place that gives annual pay increases based on teacher performance.
Under the law, 50 percent of most teachers' evaluations will be based on student growth, measured by their progress on standardized tests such as the FCAT and other data.
The state offers some flexibility on the other part of the evaluation, which is supposed to be based on observations of teachers and documentation. The district submitted its plan for approval on this portion of the evaluation during the summer to the Florida Department of Education.
On Tuesday, the district received word from the state that the evaluation has conditional approval but needs some "tweaks" for full approval, said Superintendent Bill Malone.
"There were a few little comments that we had to clean up," Malone said.
Among the items that needed modification were parent input, the use of multiple data sources in the evaluation and improvement plans, and continuous improvement, according to a letter the state sent the district.
Any revisions to the plan have to be approved by the state before the district can implement the system. A final revised version is due to the Department of Education no later than Dec. 1, the letter states.
Even after approval, however, the district plans to continue to work on the new evaluation model before it becomes part of a merit-based pay plan in 2014.
"We won't know until we actually start using it how well it actually works," Malone said. "By the time we get to the money part of the equation, we hope to have it figured out."
Tony Hernandez, executive director of the county's teachers union, said employees won't be held accountable under the new evaluation system for the first semester this year as it works out the bugs.
Malone is optimistic the new evaluation system, which he said is more time-intensive than old evaluations, will offer more honest evaluations to employees — something he said the district hasn't been doing.
Malone said during a meeting with The Palm Beach Post on Tuesday the new evaluation system is a big issue for the district, but the biggest for him is the daunting task of meeting class-size reduction requirements.
Acknowledging that the Palm Beach County School District was "by all accounts, one of the worst in the state" in terms of meeting the state mandates for smaller core classes last year, the district has a "difficult" job this year making sure that every core class in every school in the district meets class-size limits this year.
Failing to meet the limits in all core classes by the time the state Department of Education does its own count in October could subject the district to fines of up to $16 million.
In addition to the $19 million the district used to hire new teachers and do other things to prepare to meet class-size limits, the district has set aside up to $6 million for potential staffing adjustments between now and October, said Mike Burke, the district's chief financial officer.
Malone would not say how much of that $6 million will need to be spent, saying that there's "intense discussion" and some "tension" between trying to be fiscally responsible and trying to "do the right thing with student achievement."
"We'll spend what we need to," Malone said. "It's too soon to say how much."
18 Sep, 2011--
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