Calvert County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jack Smith gave the Board of Education (BOE) an overview of a state model for the evaluation of teachers and administrators during a March 7 work session. The consensus was that Calvert County needs to craft its own model and hope it is acceptable to state officials.
“We don’t want to use this [state] model,” said Smith, who labeled the state plan “patently unreasonable.”
Maryland is attempting to comply with the mandates of the federally funded “Race to the Top.” All but two of Maryland’s 22 school systems are committed to compliance. During the 2011-12 school year several counties participated in a pilot program for teacher evaluations. During the current school year models are being field-tested. By the start of the 2013-2014 school year the evaluation models are to be fully implemented. School systems may propose their own models but if the model is rejected by state education officials, the state plan must be implemented.
In Calvert, the state plan has been field-tested. “We’ve learned so much and what we’ve learned is we don’t want to use it,” said Smith, who reported a committee comprised of teachers, administrators and representatives of employee associations are working to draft an acceptable alternative.
The teacher evaluations have two major components—professional practice and student growth. Smith indicated it was the latter category that is causing the heartburn. That figure would be based on a performance score for teachers in assessed areas, a student learning objectives score and the School Performance Index. “We don’t know what the variables are,” said Smith. “Teachers have to have confidence in the evaluation system.”
“The problem is you are going to have good teachers with poor evaluations,” declared BOE President Dr. Eugene Karol.
