It's no secret that the quality of a teacher has an immense impact on student achievement. And with teacher shortages looming, particularly in specialized areas such as math & science and special education, it's definitely a hot topic of discussion.
One which will only get hotter with the release of a new report Rush to Judgment: Teacher Evaluation in Public Education from the Education Sector, an independent education policy think tank.
Authored by Thomas Toch and Robert Rothman, the report makes some strong statements about comprehensive teacher evaluations and performance pay. From "drive by" teacher rating systems and evaluations based solely on test scores identified as key contributors to the "crisis in teacher evaluation," the report calls for "A New Model" that includes:
The report even goes into time, cost and evaluations of evaluations. It is definitely worth a read, especially since the Professional Educators Standards Board just announced in this press release that Washington state needs 450 new teachers just to meet the new requirement of a third year of math to be phased in by 2013.
Plus, the Legislature is also mulling over a couple of relevant bills in play right now to address teacher shortages: HB 2043 (establishing the recruiting diverse Washington teachers program) and HB 2809 (regarding math and science teachers).
Check out the report and tell us what you think.
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