Gregoire proposes tough teacher tests

Offering a blunt assessment of the state’s failure to get rid of struggling teachers, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Tuesday proposed a tougher statewide evaluation system aimed at weeding out ineffective educators.

“The current system doesn’t work,” Gregoire said of teacher and principal ratings. “It’s too broad. It doesn’t help people grow. Teachers need to know what they’re doing well and where they can improve.”

But union officials at one school district cautioned that new teacher evaluations are complex and difficult to implement, and that a statewide overhaul of educator evaluations by the 2013-14 school year is unrealistic.

When it comes to teacher evaluations, “the devil will be in the details,” said Chris Korsmo, chief executive officer of the League of Education Voters, a public-policy group. “These tools are only as good as the folks using them.”

In a news conference in Olympia, Gregoire described the new evaluations as part of a package of education reforms she is proposing to the Legislature. They include a plan to create “lab schools” linked to universities at some of the worst-performing schools, and the formation of an office that would help coordinate between high school and higher education so that students who graduate from high school are ready for postsecondary training.

Gregoire linked the reform ideas to her proposal to raise the sales tax by a half-cent; most of the money would go to education, offsetting budget cuts.

“I want voters to know what they’re buying; they’re making a good investment in an education system that’s improving,” she said.

Nationally, teacher performance evaluations have been a hot reform item, with states and districts across the country moving to implement them. An education reform bill passed by the Legislature in the 2010 session called for new teacher evaluations to begin in 2013-14, and the bill set aside money for 17 school districts – most of them small – to pilot a system of teacher/principal evaluations.

Gregoire’s teacher/principal evaluations are more specific than the current law. They use four performance ratings: unsatisfactory, basic, proficient and distinguished. Currently, many teachers and principals are rated only satisfactory or unsatisfactory. And although the 2010 law specified that all districts should have four tiers by 2013, it did not name and describe them.

Under Gregoire’s proposal, teachers rated unsatisfactory would be placed on probation for a year. “You have that academic year to put it together, and if you don’t, you’re out — this is not your calling,” Gregoire said.

Experienced teachers who are rated as basic for two consecutive years – or for two years in a three-year period– would also be placed on probation, and would be fired if they don’t improve.

“If you are an experienced teacher, we should expect more than a basic level of performance,” said Judy Hartmann, Gregoire’s K-12 policy adviser.