Teachers may get relief from a job-review system that ties their evaluations to their students’ performance on tests.
Lawmakers are pushing two bills that would significantly reduce the relevance of testing to teacher evaluations. In one, tests would count for 30 percent of an overall review and in the other, 10 percent.
The current mandate for evaluations, adopted by the General Assembly in 2013, requires student “growth” on tests to count for at least half of each teacher’s evaluation, leading teachers to complain bitterly. They say the measure is unfair because test performance is influenced by factors beyond their control, such as instability in a student’s home life.
Forty-four percent of teachers quit in their first five years on the job, and a Georgia Department of Education teacher survey with more than 53,000 respondents blamed over-testing and the use of the results in evaluations.
“Morale is low and it is driving teachers from the profession,” said Margaret Ciccarelli, a lobbyist with the largest teacher advocacy group in the state, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.
The group has been pushing lawmakers to take on the testing issue since the overhaul of the federal No Child Left Behind Act in December eliminated a mandate for Georgia to tie teacher pay and career decisions to test-based job reviews.
Legislation filed in the Georgia Senate Wednesday would roll back the test-based component of evaluations to 30 percent and would not count the results of chronically absent students. Senate Bill 364 was filed by Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, chairman of the Senate Education and Youth Committee, with bipartisan support and backing from several top leaders, including Senate President Pro Tempore David Shafer.
The other bill, filed Tuesday by majority caucus chairman William T. Ligon, Jr. and other Republicans, also had Shafer on board. Ligon, R-Brunswick, would reduce the weight of tests even further, to less than 10 percent of job reviews.
“They both have merit and we’re encouraged that there’s enough interest and attention to this issue” Ciccarelli said.
Tippins said he wants to see tests used “to build teachers instead of being punitive.” His legislation calls for more “formative” tests that track student progress and guide teachers rather than holding them accountable. It would also push back the testing window nearer to the end of the school year, so there are fewer days after testing, when the pressure to learn can take a back seat to wacky water days on the playground.
Ligon’s bill is styled as the “Student/Teacher Protection Act.” He said teachers have had too little say in the creation of their evaluation process and that he sees a lot of support to reduce the weight of tests.
“I think there’s a consensus that where we’re at is too high,” he said.
Tippins, whose committee has domain over education legislation, concurs that tests are used too much to judge teachers but said they are still important. He said he didn’t think it would be “workable” to reduce them to 10 percent.
“Student achievement is our core business,” he said. “My bill has it at about a third, and I think that’s reasonable.”
So does state Superintendent Richard Woods, who issued a statement in support of Tippins’ legislation.
“Not only are Georgia students suffering from over-testing, Georgia teachers are, too,” he said. His agency worked with Tippins to develop the bill, and Woods testified early in the legislative session that tests should be used less to evaluate teachers.
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