Friday, June 19, 2015

TEACHER EVALUATION AND CONTRACT RENEWAL

Idaho Ed News recently published a report on teacher evaluations and the “flawed” data reported to the state. In the Boise School District, evaluations are not used to rank teachers by arbitrary labels; instead, they are used as tools to improve instruction and to determine whether or not teachers will be retained. In order to provide more insight into evaluation and supervision of educators in the Boise District, we've developed a brief summary of our process.

Idaho has a teacher contract system which encourages Districts to make decisions about teacher retention during the first three years of employment. These processes and types of contracts are detailed in Idaho Code 33-514 and 33-514A. Here are the relevant sections of Code:

Idaho Code 33-514 establishes the types of contracts offered to teachers in their first three years of employment with a school district:


  1. Category 1 is a limited one-year contract, specifically offered for the ensuing year. The local school board may terminate the contract at the end of the year with a letter to the teacher.
  2. Category 2 is for teachers in the first or second year of employment. The Board may choose not to reemploy the teacher at the end of the school year, and must provide a statement of reasons for termination. 
  3. Category 3 is for teachers in the third year of continuous employment with the district. If the employee's work is found to be unsatisfactory, a period of probation not less than 8 weeks must be provided, after which the Board may decide to retain, discharge immediately, or discharge the employee at the end of the contract. 
The Boise District has a comprehensive induction program for employees in their first 3 years of employment with the district. The program is  geared toward improvement of instruction, dealing with student behavior issues, utilizing data, and other areas. Most employees are proficient after having the benefit of this professional development.

The District assigns  peer assistants to all new-to-the-district employees, and provides  more intense peer assistance for new-to-the-profession employees.  The peer assistance program is also available for veteran employees who are underachieving or wish to improve their craft.

The Code provisions described above allow the District to counsel underachieving employees out of the profession within the first 3 years.  Typically, the contract of an employee who is judged to be "unsatisfactory" in even one subcategory of his/her evaluation will not be renewed, regardless of the overall evaluation rating.

Though the District works to improve performance of employees who are not meeting our standards, a number of contracts are "non-renewed" each school year. Of the 90-100 new-to-the district employees hired for a given year. 7-10% are typically "non-renewed".

Educators in their first 3 years of employment who receive "non-renewal" notices retain their licenses and are eligible to apply in other districts. Oftentimes, they may have been teaching at a grade level for which they were not optimally prepared, or they were not a good fit for a particular clientele. In any case, the non-renewed employee's evaluation is available to any district to which they apply.

We expect that teachers progressing to the 4th contract year are proficient in the execution of their duties; after all, the District has provided extensive training, support, and supervision for the employee. In a typical year, however, approximately 1.5% of "continuing contract" employees choose to resign or retire for personal reasons.

The Boise District has not used the "Distinguished" overall rating for teacher evaluation, because other avenues are available for teachers to demonstrate "distinguished" performance, including the National Board Certification process and the Leadership Awards program funded by the state of Idaho. Additionally, beginning in 2019, a "Master Teacher" Award program will be added, which will allow districts to create a local award for which teachers will be eligible to apply. 

Once the District decides to retain a teacher, our priority then becomes providing them with the training and tools they need to grow throughout their career. Through a host of programs, including peer assistance, mentoring and coaching, our focus on supervision is the best path to developing effective and engaging teachers. The results of these efforts are clear – a school district consistently considered one of the highest performing in the nation.

Unfortunately, beginning with the failed Students Come First legislation, many in the state have become as obsessed with teacher evaluations as they have standardized testing. In fact, both issues were raised during the debate over the new Career Ladder and the failed attempt at Tiered Licensure. While concessions were made to consider evaluations as a factor in statewide salary reimbursement, Boise Schools will continue to emphasize the day-to-day and year-to-year improvement of our teachers, not the snapshot one evaluation provides.

As Tim Corder, Special Assistant to State Superintendent Sherri Ybarra, put it in an interview with KBOI Channel 2, "The reality is we have great teachers in Idaho...". We couldn't agree more.