Connecticut education commissioner praises agreement reached on teacher evaluations

Kudos to Stefan Pryor for engineering a teacher evaluation deal in CT:

 

After years of trying, representatives of teacher unions, superintendents and school boards Wednesday reached consensus on the controversial issue of teacher evaluations.

Stefan Pryor, the new state commissioner of education, Wednesday said the model ties evaluation in part to test scores and teacher observation, while also including input from students, peers and parents.

Pryor said "a tremendous sense of optimism" was palpable in the room after members of a task force charged with the complex task found themselves in agreement on the plan's specifics.

"When we reached consensus on this set of guidelines, the room broke into applause," Pryor said of the meeting of the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council Wednesday.

The commissioner said the breakdown on evaluations includes:

- 45 percent tied to "multiple student learning indicators," with one-half of that tied to student test scores;

- 40 percent to observation of teacher performance and practices;

- 10 percent feedback from peers and parents;
- 5 percent on either student feedback or a statewide student indicator.

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Connecticut education commissioner praises agreement reached on teacher evaluations

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2012/01/25/news/doc4f20a021bfa5e529910038.txt