A Local Look at IDOE Teacher Evaluations

04/15/14 Results from the first year that the state required school corporations to perform evaluations of teachers and report to the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) appear positive. The IDOE released the report on the findings last week. The report indicates that 87 percent of Indiana teachers were rated either highly effective or effective. Only 218 of teachers statewide were deemed ineffective. Teachers could also fall into a category of Improvement Needed. 

Teachers that are rated either Improvement Needed or Ineffective cannot receive raises. School corporations must also have Improvement Plans for those rated in the bottom two categories.

State law IC 20-28-11.5-9 requires that school corporations provide disaggregated results of staff performance evaluations by teacher identification numbers. The law also states that the IDOE shall report the results to the public by posting on the Department’s website. School corporations with ten or less educators were not required to report.

The state provides a rubric for evaluations called RISE. School districts can develop their own evaluation systems, but they must be approved by the IDOE. Final teacher ratings include a significant percentage based on standardized testing, such as ISTEP (Indiana Stateside Testing for Educational Progress).

The RISE rubric contains a number of different sections including, but not limited to, Purposeful Planning, Competency, Maximize Instructional Time, Teacher Leadership, and Professionalism. Teachers are observed by administrators and, in some cases, other trained staff members. Observers look for teacher’s ability to set ambitious and measurable achievement goals, develop standard-based units and assessments, and track student’s data and analyze progress. Additional areas include such things as maximizing instructional time using routines and transitions. Professional considerations look at teacher’s attendance, knowledge and inherence to policies and procedures, and respect for others.

Mitch Mawhorter, superintendent of Union-North United School Corporation, said they are fairly pleased with the first year results. Although they used a modified version of RISE, Mawhorter said the modifications were mostly re-wording of sections that they felt were redundant. Mawhorter said, “Administrators use observable traits and fact finding.” He said they used trained staff partners in addition to administrators to observe teachers. Mawhorter said, “Our curriculum coach has done a masterful job in training our teachers.” The school corporation initiated professional development staff meetings that all teachers attend several mornings each week.

Plymouth School Corporation Assistant Superintendent, Dan Funston, said, “Our building administrators looked for facts during observations.” He said both Michelle Riise, director of quality Programs and myself conducted observations as well.” He indicated that any teachers rated Improvement needed or Ineffective who are on Improvement Plans will be observed more frequently.

Results from Marshall County school corporations: