Why were PERA and SB7 passed? What will be the consequences?

Dr. Richard Voltz, Associate DirectorIllinois Association of School

Administrators

Why?

vs.

Reformers

Educators

Reform vs. Real Reform

Who are the reformers?

Just what does college and career ready

mean?

Illinois ranks at or near the bottom in the nation in state

funding for education and student test scores are some of

the nation's highest.

Illinois ranked 10th nationally with a graduation rate of 84 percent, just 4 percent from

the top spot.

lllinois was No. 1 among the nine states in the nation that administered the ACT to all of its graduating class of 2012.

ACT. (2012) Catching Up To College and Career Readiness. Iowa City, IA. Author.

ACT. (2012) Catching Up To College and Career Readiness. Iowa City, IA. Author.

ACT. (2012) Catching Up To College and Career Readiness. Iowa City, IA. Author.

Which of the following are gaining or losing students?

Public SchoolsPrivate SchoolsVirtual SchoolsHome Schools

Type of School

1993 2003 2007

Public, Assigned

77.9% 73.9% 73.2%

Public, Chosen

11.0% 15.4% 15.5%

Private, Church

7.5% 8.4% 8.7%

Private, non-Church

1.6% 2.4% 2.6%

Virtual Schools 2011

• 2,000,000 online courses taken by public school students annually

• 250,000 full time virtual students• 52M public school students

Why PERA?

• Teachers and principals are important for student growth

• Only .4% of teachers have been rated “unsatisfactory” in the past

• Must measure professional competencies and student growth

• Must ensure that evaluation systems are valid and reliable

The Hidden Costs of Tenure2005 Article by Scott Reeder

• Cost to fire a tenured teacher = $219,000• 95,500 Illinois tenured teachers an average of only 2

fired per year• 5 fired for issues of misconduct• Only 1 out 930 evaluations resulted in unsatisfactory• 83% of districts have never rated a teacher

unsatisfactory in past decade• 94% have never attempted to fire anyone with

tenure

PERA Requires

• Form Joint Committee to– Design performance based evidence of teacher

practice– Incorporate data and indicators of student growth

into the teacher and principal evaluation• Required evaluator training• New four rating categories• Allows for use of peer evaluators

New way to figure RIF List

Groupings

• Group 1 – Non tenure teacher who has no performance evaluation rating.

• Group 2 – Each teacher with a Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory rating on either of the teacher’s last 2 performance ratings

• Group 3 – Teacher with a performance rating of Proficient on both of the teacher’s last 2

• Group 4 - Teacher with a performance rating of Excellent on both of the teacher’s last 2 or 2 Excellent of last 3 with other being Proficient

New Ratings

• Effects– Tenure– Honorable dismissal– Remediation– Professional development plan required for

teachers rated “Needs Improvement” or “Unsatisfactory”

– Cause for dismissal

SB7

• Changes Honorable Dismissal (RIF)/layoff of both tenured and non-tenured teachers

• Acquisition of tenure, post PERA implementation changes– Four year– Accelerated– Two year

There are 138 “Shall’s” in the Part 50 Rules for Performance

Evaluation

5Essentials Survey

https://demo.5-essentials.org/2012/s/7777/

This new process requires “formal” and “informal”

observations.

• Non-probationary teachers: at least 2 observations a year (1 formal)

• Probationary teachers: at least 3 observations (2 formal)

• Professional development must align to NSDC standards.

• Phased-in implementation for new teacher evaluations. • All 625 Chicago schools and

schools receiving School Improvement Grants will implement in 2012-13.

• Lowest 20% performing schools by 2015-16 and

• All remaining schools by 2016-17.

Most other states are doing similar reform of teacher evaluation

There is not a state professional practice default

model.

Danielson Frameworks For Teaching is the state model.

Why Danielson?

Danielson meets state

requirements

Illinois law requires...

Research based on effective instruction practices

Must have teacher

self-reflection included in the process

Shall quantify the relative importance of each portion of the framework to the final professional practice rating.

Must include 1) Planning

2) Instructional Delivery

3) Classroom Management

4) Aligned to Illinois Professional Teaching

Standards

What about aspects not observable during classroom

observations?

4 Domains

22 Components

76 Elements

Framework Vocabulary

Teacher evaluations typically look like this...

Each teacher teaches 900 lessons per year, 1,800 for two years

Instead it should

look like this.

Increased observations

It needs to look more like a Gallop Poll, random and 10 times per cycle.

like this...

In other words, it will

10 Observations per cycle

1. Sept. 2012 – Informal (focused student discipline)

2. Nov. 2012 – Informal (focused on Engaged Learning)

3. Dec. 2012 – Informal (focus on transitions)

4. March 2013 – Informal (focuses on Questioning)

5. May 2013 – Informal (focused on assessment)

6. August 2013 – Informal (respect & rapport)

7. October 2013 - Formal8. January 2014 –

Informal (culture for learning)

9. March 2014 – Informal (communicating)

10.April 2014 - Final Summative Formal

The key concept with Danielson is

Engaged Learning

My Predictions

Use of Video for Teacher Observations

Mentor Video

Peer Evaluators to provide input

http://richvoltz.edublogs.org/2013/01/29/include-excellent-rated-teachers-in-the-evaluation-process/

Student Input

http://richvoltz.edublogs.org/2012/12/11/using-student-survey-information-to-evaluate-teachers/

Follow me athttp://richvoltz.edublogs.org

rvoltz@iasaedu.org