Task force tackles teacher appraisals

BOISE – An Idaho Department of Education task force has begun its work toward developing statewide standards to grade teacher performance, in hopes of eventually persuading lawmakers to approve performance-based salary increases.

The lack of standardized performance evaluations for Idaho teachers is partly why the Senate killed a $21 million pay-for-performance plan by public schools chief Tom Luna earlier this year, said Christina Linder, teacher certification director for the State Board of Education.

“I think that’s what really came out of the last session,” Linder said.

Idaho now requires school districts and charter schools to evaluate teachers yearly, but the process varies among schools and districts and lacks consistency, said Nick Smith, a state Department of Education deputy superintendent.

“We have districts where it’s not working,” Smith said. “There are teachers who feel they’re not getting an effective evaluation.”

The state Department of Education hopes to bring recommendations drafted by the task force, which assembled for the first time Wednesday, to the Legislature in January.

The standardized performance evaluations, if adopted, could be used as a springboard for getting lawmakers to agree to a pay-for-performance plan that could attract and retain Idaho teachers, Linder said.

Teacher vacancies in Idaho school districts have grown annually by 10 percent in recent years, Linder said. Vacancies peaked during the 2005-2006 school year with more than 2,400 open positions, according to the Idaho Department of Education. Last year districts reported more than 1,700 teacher vacancies.

After dumping Luna’s plan for performance-based raises earlier this year, legislative budget writers did approve $23.8 million in teacher salary increases, including a plan to boost the minimum Idaho teacher salary by 3 percent.

About half of the $23.8 million would go to teachers in their first six years in the profession who currently make the state minimum of $31,000. Additional money would go for other teachers to get smaller raises.

The Idaho teachers union balked at the plan, calling it too stingy to lure new teachers or keep good ones in the profession. Without merit-based pay increases, Smith said, teachers who teach more than one course, accept hard-to-fill positions, or take on extra responsibilities such as mentoring, will be paid only as much as teachers who don’t.

Another pay-for-performance plan could come before state lawmakers as soon as next year, said Department of Education spokeswoman Melissa McGrath, but how much that proposal resembles the pitch Luna made to state lawmakers this year will largely be decided after the task force finishes its work.

Luna has named 22 members to the task force charged with drafting recommendations for teacher performance evaluations. The task force is scheduled to meet at least once a month through the end of the year.

On Wednesday, members discussed whether to incorporate the core teaching standards Idaho colleges and universities use to develop education programs in their recommendations. School administrators on the task force called the set of 10 criteria “complicated” and said they’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to introduce standards at their schools.

Arco Elementary School teachers reviewed the standards five years ago, said Principal Karen Pyron.

“They were very intimidated,” Pyron said. “We kind of put them back on the shelf.”

Luna encouraged the task force to take another look at the core teaching standards while drafting recommendations for what he calls “fair and valid performance evaluations.”

“What’s happening in our colleges of education has to be incorporated into what we’re doing.”