State Education Department approves pilot program for teacher evaluations

A new evaluation system is coming for Missouri teachers. Perhaps this is a good thing, but I always worry when I see a news release issued that includes such educational buzzwords as "collaboration" and "stakeholders."


The following release was issued today by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The State Board of Education approved a one-year pilot project of Missouri's new Educator Evaluation System for the 2012-2013 school year. The new system focuses on the improvement of effective educational practices and the professional development of teachers, principals and school superintendents. The Educator Evaluation System fulfills a portion of Goal 3 of the Department's Top 10 by 20 initiative, which states that Missouri will prepare, develop and support effective educators. The Top 10 by 20 initiative is the state plan to launch Missouri into the top 10 states by the year 2020.

Schools districts across the state will have the opportunity to participate in the 2013-2013 pilot project and can register online to receive more information. Regional training sessions will be offered this fall to all districts. Once the pilot project is complete, the system will be further refined based on feedback from the field-testing, with the resulting system available for use by districts starting with the 2013-2014 school year.

"The Educator Evaluation System is the culmination of many partners' and educational stakeholders' work over the course of the past few years," said Dr. Karla Eslinger, assistant commissioner in the Office of Educator Quality at the Department. "The effort has been a true collaboration and we strongly encourage continued feedback from educators across the state on this new system as we continue to make improvements throughout the pilot year. Our goal is to provide quality developmental experiences for all Missouri educators."

The initial work on the system's standards and indicators was completed by numerous stakeholders including educators, partner organizations, school districts and educator preparation programs. During the 2011-2012 school year, 174 school districts tested these components and provided feedback to finalize the first version of the educator evaluation system.

The pilot version of the Educator Evaluation System was presented to the State Board at their June meeting held yesterday, and is available for review on the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's website atdese.mo.gov/eq/ees.htm. Initial training on the system will take place at the Department's annual Cooperative Conference for School Administrators in July.