Submitted report
Texas Commissioner of Education Michael Williams in December published proposed new “Teacher Standards” to “inform the development, in the spring of 2014, of a new state-adopted appraisal process.”
The commissioner advised that in working up this proposal the Texas Education Agency had convened a stakeholder committee “comprised predominately of teachers to develop and articulate performance standards for Texas teachers.”
The announcement also stated that the commissioner’s proposed administrative rules “would establish standards in the areas of instructional planning and delivery, knowledge of students and student learning, content knowledge and expertise, learning environment, data driven practice, and professional practices and responsibilities and would provide descriptors of success with regard to those standards.”
A public-comment period opened on Friday and will end on Jan. 28.
To review the proposal, visit http://www.tea.state.tx.us. Search for “Text of Proposed New 19 TAC Chapter 149, Commissioner’s Rules Concerning Educator Standards, Subchapter AA, Teacher Standards, Sec. 149.1001, Teacher Standards.”
Williams proposes to use these rules as the foundation for a successor to the current PDAS (Professional Development and Appraisal System), which has been in use since 1997. The commissioner intends to roll out the new state-approved appraisal system in the 2015-16 school year.
A critical issue in the move toward a new appraisal system is the role students’ scores on standardized state tests will play in an individual teacher’s evaluation. In exchange for a waiver of certain requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Commissioner Williams has given assurances to the U.S. Department of Education that the new Texas appraisal process will use those state test results as a significant factor in measuring the “student growth” attributed to a teacher for purposes of evaluation.
Three options under consideration, according to the commissioner’s waiver request, are as follows:
“1) minimum percentage weighting of 20 percent based on statewide assessments in tested grades and subjects, other measures can be added on top of the 20 percent;
“2) student growth matrix that is based on statewide assessments in tested grades and subjects, other measures may be added in addition to the matrix and
“3) the trigger method whereby teachers and principals who do not achieve a minimum student growth amount cannot be rated as ‘effective’ or higher and for tested grades and subjects, the minimum student growth measure must be based on statewide assessments.”
Written by Texas AFT Legislative Hotline staff.
