Sen. Steve Litzow once again is sponsoring bills that mandate the use of state test scores in teacher evaluations – a proposal the state Senate defeated last year after staunch opposition from teachers and others.
Senate Bill 5748 says, “… for teachers who teach reading or language arts or mathematics in a grade in which the federally mandated statewide student assessments are administered, one of the multiple measures of student growth must be the student results on the relevant assessments.”
WEA opposes SB 5748 and a similar bill, SB 5749. Litzow and others have said the change is needed to qualify for a waiver from the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Educators believe it makes no sense to dramatically change our successful teacher evaluation system when Congress appears ready to rewrite the ESEA.
Another WEA legislative goal is to “Ensure teacher and principal evaluations use appropriate student growth data and that use of standardized tests is allowed but not mandated.”