State Rep. Randy Nix, R-LaGrange, has introduced legislation to establish a new system for the evaluation of teachers, assistant principals and principals.
In crafting his bill, Nix said he’s worked with the governor’s office and the state Department of Education, which is using federal grant money to devise its own evaluation system.
“We are just at the beginning of the process to move this bill through the House,” Nix said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Much of the work thus far has been done by DOE and the governor’s office.”
Nix said the goal of his legislation is to provide greater uniformity and more objectivity in the evaluation system, which will have student improvement as a major factor.
That’s the heart of the evaluation system being crafted by the state Department of Education with funds from the Race to the Top education improvement grant Georgia received in 2010.
Uniformity can be a problem under the current evaluation system, which weighs the performances of about 120,000 educators in the state. Each of Georgia’s nearly 180 school districts can add its own expectations to what the state system is gauging.
Tim Callahan, a spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, said the old evaluation system needs improvement.
“It really didn’t provide the level and quality of feedback to help educators improve,” Callahan said. “What was seriously lacking was a thoughtful observation process by trained observers who would work collaboratively with the teachers to improve their performance.”
Callahan said educators want to see what the state Department of Education comes up with.
“We would prefer, instead of a legislatively mandated evaluation system, that we allow more time for the school systems to continue their (Race to the Top) collaboration on developing new evaluation systems for both teachers and principals with the (state Department of Education),” he said. “We don’t want to see a hurried rollout of any new system that fails to properly train those doing the observations because it will undermine the effectiveness of the new program.”
Nix said upcoming hearings on his legislation will address concerns raised by educators.
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