This school year, Eugene School District 4J will begin piloting a new Teacher Evaluation and Growth Plan System. This new system is designed to support quality education for all students and provide continuous growth and improvement of licensed professionals.
Why a new system and change? In 2011, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 290. The Bill mandates that by July 1, 2013 all school districts will implement a teacher and principal evaluation consistent with the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) standards.
To meet this mandate, a very thoughtful and thorough process was developed to create a new Teacher Evaluation and Growth Plan Pilot. The district process began in April 2011 when Human Resource Director, Dr. Celia Feres-Johnson did an extensive literature search on teacher evaluations and a review of best practices from Oregon and around the nation.
May of 2011 nine focus groups were established to review the research and practices. Focus groups included: Teachers, Union Leaders, Principals, Students, Equity Committee members, Education Support Services, Administrative staff and Stand for Children.
Six Pilot Schools were selected: McCornack Elementary School, Edgewood Elementary School, Cesar Chavez Elementary School, Howard Elementary School, Cal Young Middle School, and Sheldon High School. At each school teachers volunteered to participate in testing the teacher evaluation pilot throughout the 2012-13 school year.
The focus groups continued to met from May to September. In October they recommended two models for a Teacher evaluation system in draft form. The superintendent, the superintendent’s cabinet and principals reviewed the work of the focus groups. At the October District Leadership Team (DLT) meeting both models were presented and merged into one. The meeting was facilitated by: University of Oregon Professor Dr. Biancarosa, an experienced developer of performance evaluations and assessments. DLT members: Instruction Directors(3), Teachers(3), Board Members(2), EEA(3) Equity Committee(1), Stand for Children(2), Principals (6), UO faculty(1),Human Resources(2) Education Support Services(2), Pacific University(1), Parents(2), Students(2), Lane ESD(1).
Teacher input throughout the development of the pilot draft was a critical component of the teacher revaluation process. Several sessions were set up in order to provide multiple opportunities for the licensed teaching staff to review and give input.
In January 9, 2012, the Oregon Department of Education, held a Oregon School Personnel Association (OSPA ) Summit on Core Standards and Evaluation Practices for Teachers and Administrators. The State adopted the following federal parameters: 1. Continual improvement. 2. Differentiated Performance 3. Use of multiple measure, in including as a significant factor, growth for all students 4. Evaluate educators on a regular basis 5. Clear, timely and useful feedback guiding professional development 6. Inform personnel decisions. The Eugene 4J pilot model was revised to insure all these were represented by January 30, 2012.
The week of April 16, 2012, Dr. Jon Saphier, worked with faculty and administrators on teacher quality and evaluation standards. Dr. Saphier is a leading researcher and founder of Research for Better Teaching, Inc. (http://www.rbteach.com/rbteach2/Home.html)
Dr. Jon Saphier will be working with the pilot schools throughout the 2012-13 school year. He will guide the implementation and evaluation of this pilot. The exciting aspect of this new plan is the emphasis on teacher growth focused on student learning.
