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Thursday, April 7, 2016
A Message from HSTA President Corey Rosenlee on Employee Evaluations, posted 4-07-2016
Teachers are deeply committed to the success of every student.
Today, despite overwhelming evidence pointing to its ineffectiveness, the Department of Education announced it will continue the Educator Effectiveness System (EES) process. Teachers affected include half of all tenured teachers for the 2015-2016 school year.
This announcement is especially disappointing because it flies in the face of all the evidence against high stakes teacher evaluations, like EES, and all the legislative changes that have occurred this school year:
The Every Student Succeeds Act, which passed in December, allows individual states to decide to use tests on teacher evaluations or whether they want to conduct teacher evaluations at all.
69% of teachers had an unfavorable opinion of EES and 68% of teachers said that EES was not improving their teaching (HSTA Survey 2016)
86% of principals agree there is too much emphasis on test scores and 78% of principals agree that the EES has adversely affected morale at their schools (Education Institute of Hawaii’s Principal Survey 2015)
After implementing the Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP) for the 98% of the tenured teachers who received an effective or highly effective rating, teachers have reported that the stress level on campus has decreased and morale increased. The DOE could have carried over ratings and continued IPDP for one more year until a new contract could be negotiated, but instead they choose to go back to EES for school year 2016-2017.
It is imperative that the DOE listen to its teachers because teachers are the ones who are doing the work every single day. If teachers and principals say that one method is not working and another has potential for success, our opinions should not be ignored out of hand.
Despite the DOE’s announcement today, HSTA is not giving up the fight:
HSTA is actively lobbying in favor of Senate Concurrent Resolution 155, which requests the DOE abolish the use of teacher evaluations that impact teacher pay or employment status, discontinue use of standardized tests in evaluating teachers, and that the Board of Education collaborate with the HSTA on creating a new evaluation system.
HSTA has testified to the Board of Education that they amend or eliminate BOE policy 2055(203.4)
HSTA will keep this issue front and center during contract negotiations which will open later this year.
HSTA will work with Governor David Ige to appoint people to the Board of Education who will listen to teachers that high stakes teacher evaluations are not improving education, and who will respect the voices of every teacher.
It is up to all of us to stay vigilant on this issue, and keep voicing our opposition. Continue the fight. Keep the faith. We can do this together.
Aloha
Corey Rosenlee HSTA President
HSTA: United in the pursuit of excellence for Hawaii’s public schools.
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