New Utah teacher evaluation system in the works

SALT LAKE CITY — The State Board of Education gave preliminary approval Friday to an evaluation system the State Office of Education wants applied to "all educators" in the state and not just teachers.

Staff members at the state office are working to provide a framework for evaluations that schools statewide will be able to either adopt or modify to suit their needs. The system should be complete by the spring.

All evaluations will be based on instructional effectiveness, student growth, and parent and student input. Sydnee Dickson, director of teaching and learning at the state office, told the board the evaluations will apply to all certified employees including counselors and administrators.

"It's not just about teachers who teach tested subjects, it's really for all educators," she said.

Currently, there is no common terminology or system used to evaluate teachers from school to school. The new program will allow for uniformity and comparison.

"(There has) really been no way to consistently collect data on effectiveness of teachers," Dickson said.

Teacher effectiveness will be determined by a combination of student and parent feedback, instructional quality and student performance.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, was voted into law last legislative session and requires all teachers to be evaluated annually. It requires all provisional employees — typically those with three years of experience or less — to be evaluated twice a year.

Dickson said the state office has been researching evaluation systems for the past two years and the new law fits right in with the work they have been doing.

Board member Janet Cannon asked if the new evaluations might be used by some administrators as criteria for termination.

"Any evaluation system that's valuable and reliable allows for that," Dickson said.

While some aggregated data might be made available to the public, Dickson said it's important to protect the privacy of educators.

"We do want to be careful in how we gather that data and house that data," she said.

Dickson said once the board approves an evaluation framework — likely in September — districts and schools around the state will begin using the state model or developing their own.

"I think a lot of our districts our waiting for us to get that model in place," she said.

By October, each school will need to have an educator evaluation committee in place that will work on the individual school implementation of the system. The full teacher evaluation system will go into effect during the 2013-14 school year.

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