Education Commissioner Addresses Teachers

Answering pre-screened questions, Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman spoke with a handful of Sumner County teachers last week about the state's new evaluation system.

Huffman declined to offer specifics on a way forward despite a system that has administrators spending many more hours in schools filling out paperwork and has teachers fretting over achieving "desirable" rankings.

The Star News article above incorrectly notes that tenured teachers could lose seniority if their scores dip below a 4 or 5. The new law actually says that if they receive a 1 or 2 in consecutive years, that could create a cause for losing tenure. Receiving a 3 for the year means a teacher's status stays the same.

Likewise, the Star News gets it wrong when it says "Apprentice teachers must score that high (a 4 or 5) in the final two years of their five-year probation or else leave the profession."

The actual law says that in order to be tenured, a teacher must score a 4 or 5 in the final two years of probation - but it does NOT require the dismissal of a teacher who does not earn tenure after 5 years. In fact, a teacher could have 5 years of 1 ratings and still be allowed to be rehired for a 6th year.

The new system anticipates that few teachers will be able to attain the 4 or 5 ranking in the last two years of probation, so significantly less teachers will be tenured. But it seems likely that a significant number of 2 and 3 level teachers will be rehired for a 6th year of teaching on year-to-year contracts.

In other news from the Commissioner's visit, Huffman indicated that eventually, all subject areas will have tests to be used for teacher evaluation purposes. That means Related Arts, P.E., Band, etc.

I can see it now: Flyers going home with kids telling parents to come on in next week and pay $1 to watch not a chorus performance but a group of chorus kids taking a state-mandated test about their knowledge of how to conduct a chorus performance. And if Ms. Chorus teacher's students can't pass the test, she may never again get to put on one of those shows that the community has come to enjoy and that students remember for a lifetime.

Huffman failed to mention that developing this many tests requires a significant expenditure of tax dollars -- resources that won't be going to support teachers or to help children learn.

Since the questions were pre-screened, points like these could not be made in this "forum." Maybe on his next visit?