Page 22 - Leadership Matters February 2013_3140b78f.pub
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the details of Common Core?
The use of student growth data for performance
teacher evaluation purposes will be minimized as both
teachers and the public figure out that there is not a
direct “causation” between the classroom teacher and
student test scores. There are so many more
variables that affect student learning, one important
variable being the economic status of the parents,
than the classroom teacher. Courts will have a hey
day as teachers are dismissed due to non-valid and
non-reliable student growth data. As an expert on data
analysis told me when I was discussing student
growth data with him, “I can make the data say
whatever you want, so what do you want it to say.”
23 Ill. Adm. Code 50.120(a)(1) (internal citation
omitted). The effect of this provision is to require that
districts carefully address their evaluation plans so
that the evaluation of each teacher reflects the
instruction for which they are actually responsible
(
e.g.
, so that a P.E. teacher is not evaluated based
upon math performance and a math teacher is not
evaluated based upon athleticism).
When bargaining about the evaluation plan, be
sure to agree only to implementation of those
components of the plan for which the administration
is prepared to live. According to the Code, the whole
State Model plan need not be implemented, but that
does not mean the union won’t punish a board
(read: litigation) for failing to agree on a model
(particularly if the union likes the State Model better).
This is the prime importance of determining
how
implementation will occur
at the outset of meetings
or during collective bargaining. Define when the 180-
day clock will begin, and what exactly will happen
when it runs.
Bargaining Committee
Once the RIF and Evaluation joint committees
have completed their work, the union may request to
negotiate the impact of the evaluation process. Even
when the school district is up against a deadline to
implement its evaluation plan, the district is required
to discuss the procedural components of the
implementation of that evaluation plan.
The best advice for any district beginning
negotiations regarding the process of evaluation is
to define -- clearly and in writing -- the committee
which is meeting, the people who are present, and
what will happen in the event of impasse or in the
event that agreement is not reached by the date of
mandatory implementation. Now is the time to begin
these discussions. Do not wait until the
implementation deadline to hastily attempt to comply
with the law.
Legally Speaking
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Voltz Column
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