Illinois Altering Formula to Evaluate Teachers

I can’t remember a time in my life that the phrase “teachers are underpaid” wasn’t just accepted as a matter of fact. Truth is there are teachers who deserve to get paid more and there are teachers who don’t belong in the classroom. Every student is better for the former and worse for the latter. Every student has had both.

Teachers make a difference. For better or worse

The state of Illinois has evaluated teacher performance based on specific test scores since 2010. That just changed.

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Senate Bill 28 just passed by a large margin in Springfield and awaits Governor Pritzker’s signature to become law. SB28 gives local school districts the ability to decide if the standardized test scores should be the standard by which teachers (and administrators) are evaluated.

IFT Offices - Westmont, Illinois

Local perspective is key when it comes to teacher assessment. Yes, you want students to learn and have that learning be measured. But the weight of standardized test scores has gotten out of balance. There is more to a student’s growth than a standardized test.

Is that a number 2 pencil?

There is truth to the notion that there are more factors to a good year of learning than a teacher. But, doesn’t that statement diminish the role of the teacher? If local school districts are to gauge teacher performance comprehensively shouldn’t the students and parents have a voice? Would the Illinois Federation of Teachers welcome parents and student’s evaluations of their members to the process? What about other teachers weighing in on their peers?

What does comprehensive evaluation look like?

Should you want an honest assessment of individual teacher achievement, satisfied or dissatisfied students and parent’s opinions should carry weight. The local districts should combine how far students evolve throughout the school year within the curriculum, with how students and parents view they’ve been handled and led through the process. Were the student’s individual needs met towards achievement? Did the parents notice growth? Were the parents and teacher’s partners in the process?

Parent-Teacher conference might carry more weight

Wouldn’t that give you a truer measure of school year success? Rewarding the teachers who have a heart for student’s growth, and expose the ones who have lost the passion for that hard work? Or never had it, and used teaching as a fall back, seeing the profession as a safety net?

Teachers know which of their peers are in the profession for the right reasons

Hard conversations for sure. Teachers unions won’t be for it. Their fight isn’t for student performance (despite what they say), it’s always for increasing teacher pay and benefits. The people who pay for all of it though deserve a larger voice.