LIHUE – After teachers statewide expressed concern on new evaluation practices, the Department of Education is tweaking the program. The changes will be implemented during the upcoming school year in the Educator Effectiveness System after some educators expressed concern about the way
LIHUE – After teachers statewide expressed concern on new evaluation practices, the Department of Education is tweaking the program.
The changes will be implemented during the upcoming school year in the Educator Effectiveness System after some educators expressed concern about the way the program was rolled out and the time requirements, unavailability of materials and perceived unfairness with it.
The changes on how teachers were evaluated were based on feedback the DOE received after it re-evaluated the program after fielding those concerns. DOE officials said they’re intended to simplify and streamline the evaluation process and reduce the burden on teachers and administrators.
Wil Okabe, the Hawaii State Teachers Association president, said in a press release they are pleased with the changes to EES.
“Our goal is to make sure that every child in Hawaii has access to great public schools and teachers,” Olabe said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the DOE to improve an evaluation system that improves the practice of teaching and student learning to produce real results.”
The changes include:
• Differentiating the number of required classroom observations based on need from twice annually to no observations for highly effective teachers. One or more observations for effective teachers and two or more observations for marginal, unsatisfactory or beginning teachers. Statewide, this means about 9,000 fewer classroom observations. That would reduce the observation workload by almost 50 percent.
• Providing the about 1,800 teachers rated highly effective in the 2013-14 school year the option to carryover their rating in lieu of repeating the evaluation.
• Reducing the administration of the Tripod Student Survey from twice to once annually, eliminating the survey for kindergarten through second grades and eliminating the demographic questions from the survey. It means about 11,700 fewer survey administrations, or a 63 percent reduction.
• Reducing, for most teachers, the number of required student learning objectives from two to one annually, which would be about 12,400 fewer required SLOs.
The changes are the result of recommendations by the EES Joint Committee, which consisted of teachers, principals, administrators, technical experts and Complex Area and state staff, who met regularly throughout the past school year.
The EES began in the 2011-12 school year as a pilot in 18 schools, and then expanded to 81 schools in the 2012-13 school year. As the EES was implemented in schools, the DOE solicited feedback about the program.
Not everyone is happy with results.
Michael Kline, a special education teacher at Kilauea Elementary School, said the program still needs work.
“I still believe the teacher evaluation system is fundamentally flawed,” he said. “The trend nationally is still to scapegoat teachers for the ills of public education. This flawed teacher evaluation system and the increase in testing are byproducts of this so-called reform to education. It is still misguided in that teachers’ pay is still connected to students performance on a lot of testing.”
He said the damage has already been done by having the program out there, and blamed the state.
“Their mismanagement of the $75 million Race to the Top grant, as seen in the reckless, unprofessional rollout of the Educator Effectiveness System, was absolutely unnecessary and showed a lot of disrespect to teachers, administrators, students and our schools,” he added.
Hawaii Government Education Associate Executive Director Randy Perreira said they are encouraged by the changes proposed by the EES Joint Committee.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the department to implement changes that will ensure the workload of principals and vice principals is manageable. Addressing the educational officers’ need for adequate systemic supports with their increasing responsibilities has been and continues to be an important issue for the HGEA,” Perreira said.
The Kauai Complex Superintendent’s office didn’t respond for commend.
“The department will continue to collaborate with educators to further improve the EES, these changes are just the beginning to refining this system and ultimately, elevating student achievement,” Hawaii state superintendent Matayoshi said.
