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Results Vary Widely In Teacher Evaluations
December 5, 2013
The Department of Education released teacher evaluation numbers that showed wide variations between districts across the state, raising questions about how useful the information might be in comparing marks from different counties.
Overall, the state report — based on information provided by school districts as of Nov. 25 — shows that 97.9 percent of classroom teachers were rated effective or highly effective for the 2012-13 school year. Just 0.2 percent were rated unsatisfactory, the lowest measure on the scale.
At the same time, evaluations hadn’t been completed or submitted to the department for 13.7 percent of classroom teachers. Those numbers will be added when the report is updated in January or when it’s finalized in March.
In Escambia County, 215 (8.3 percent) teachers were rated as highly effective, 2,260 (87 percent) as effective, 77 (3 percent) as needing improvement and 12 (0.5 percent) as unsatisfactory. There were 359 Escambia County teachers (12.1 percent) that have not yet been evaluated, according to the report.
State officials said that difference probably stems at least in part from the fact that, while state law provides “a framework” for how the evaluations are conducted, districts also have a great deal of leeway in determining what makes a teacher fall into one of four categories: highly effective, effective, needs improvement or unsatisfactory.
“Where districts set the performance levels for each of the categories … is up to the school district,” said Kathy Hebda, chief of staff at the Department of Education.
The evaluation system and its connection to teacher pay under legislation approved in 2011 is under legal assault in state and federal courts by teachers unions. In a separate case, The Florida Times-Union is seeking the release of the results for individual teachers from the “value added” model used in the evaluations.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
Comments
10 Responses to “Results Vary Widely In Teacher Evaluations”
Can anybody find out how much money the company who markets this Danielson model software is making from Escambia County? I’m a teacher in this county, and I can truly say this evaluation system is a load of C – R – A – P. Downtown knows it is dysfunctional, but nobody there is stepping up to say it needs to be thrown out. The DOER is correct in saying that veteran teachers are getting ready to throw in the towel and go teach somewhere else. We need leadership that’s not afraid to admit that something is not working right!
Billy D,
It would make life and education much better for the rest of the children, the ones who want to learn, and avoid teacher burn-out.
David for loooong time-outs
@ anit, so would you say the same for getting rid of the kids who WILL NOT LEARN? Will you say the same thing about the kids who DON’T GIVE A CRAP? Will you say the same thing about the parents of these same kids who DON’T SUPPORT LEARNING? Yes, there are teachers who really don’t get the message across as well as others and probably should find other employment. But the story here is about how the teachers are evaluated as a whole which is subjective at it’s best and the system is compromised by the “good ol’ boy system” sometimes unfortunately. I’d say a vast majority of teachers are actually good at what they do. I’d also say that a large majority of the kids are getting the message. Sad thing is the people who DON’T CARE are the ones who garner 99% of the attention because at some point ALL the teachers are teaching to the lowest common denominator. The lowest common denominator can ruin your whole day(or career in this instance)
Do away with the union that protects the teacher that
1. Cannot teach
2. Will not teach
Period.
The Teachers Union and what they do to protect “teachers” that are mentioned in points one and two, are defenseless…period.
97.9% were considered at least effective in an evaluation supposedly skewed against them.
One out of fifty wasn’t?
Why are we screaming, crying, cursing????
Very well said Doer. Before determining that being labeled “unsatisfactory” means they are bad teachers and should be fired, think about it. Even if all of your students make adequate yearly progress but do not reach an arbitrary score called VAM (value added model) you can be deemed unsatisfactory. The state is going to need to research this carefully or we will loose some of our best teachers. Even teachers in A+ schools can loose their jobs because they are rated against each other within the school. This is not a true evaluation system of the individual.
@DOER, very well said and when you add in the pure subjective nature of some of the evals it’s even more frustrating. What most people don’t understand(or WANT to hear) is that most teachers out there are putting out a very good product. When you have a group or certain demographic of kids who just don’t care to learn, it compromises the entire process behind a teachers yearly evaluation. A career and technical teacher may administer the math FCAT for a group of kids and THAT teacher will be eval’d and critiqued on that test, even though they have never taught these kids a single day that year! A reading teacher who attempts teaching a group of kids the simple task of reading is often given a substandard grade for kids who could care less about reading but the TEACHER has to suffer for it. Learning starts at home….the sad part is some of what’s being taught is how to get a free ride, not how to acheive greatness with what you have in your head. Too bad some people don’t want to break that cycle. Kuddo’s to our educators everywhere. Many long days and sleepless nights are given with little to no appreciation in return.
I have experience as a teacher in both public and private schools, high school and college levels, and I have to agree with The DOER. The Danielson model is an example of someone’s (half-baked) pet project run amok. Not only are lazy and poor teachers made comfortable, the majority of capable, dedicated teachers have to suffer from the effects of those less productive instructors.
The meaningless teacher evals, the retention of poor or incompetent teachers, and the churning out of ujprepared, poorly educated graduates of the public school system are the primary reasons that there is such a strong surge in numbers of private schools.
The headline should read; Bad Teachers fired after recieving unsatisfactory evaluations. Why do we keep them, and why not at least identify them so that parents could at least remove their children from the bad teacher’s classes?
The new teacher evaluation system is preposterous. Everyone would agree, including dedicated instructional leaders, that teachers need to be held accountable, as anyone in a professional position should; however, the new system is nothing more than a paper trail. Using observations, based on a Charlotte Danielson model (for Escambia County, FL), which DEMANDS that all of your instruction is student-led, this alone counts for 50% of the teacher’s score. The Danielson model is the silliest thing I have ever seen in my 25 years of successful teaching. There is nothing wrong with student activities throughout the class period, but now teachers are expected to allow the students to decide what effort they want to put in for the assignments/lessons. This is student-led instruction. Fifty percent of a teacher’s evaluation comes from this new concept. This works well with advanced or highly motivated classes. This is the worst model ever, however, for the majority of the classes.
Isn’t this exactly the OPPOSITE idea of what goes on in a college-setting? Florida needs to wake up. ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Florida needs to wake up.
The remaining 50% of the teacher’s evaluation comes from the learning gains for selected students under his/her instruction. Those gains are only for reading or math. It doesn’t matter what you teach. Oh, and if you simply are employed with the distrcit, let’s say as a tech person, you will get the district average. That really means that this 50% for you can potentially be higher than a PE teacher who is being evaluating on the school’s reading scores. Yea, and you don’t even teach reading.
Many veteran teachers are getting ready to throw in the towel. The new teachers, who can be easily duped because they are so job-scared are left out to dry. In the end, it is our students who suffer the most.