Teacher Evaluation Panel Proposed Plan Would Involve Parents, Teachers, Administrators

A legislative study committee is considering a proposal from its co-chairman to require veteran teachers to be evaluated by a locally established “performance review panel” every five years.

But it appeared the idea floated by Republican state Sen. Darrel Deide of Caldwell, a former school superintendent, has little chance of winning committee support next month when it finalizes recommendations to the Legislature.

“I certainly support the idea of a more in-depth and comprehensive review by informed and well-trained people beyond the immediate supervisor. But I believe this particular proposal is fraught with peril,” state Sen. Betsy Dunklin, a Boise Democrat, said Wednesday.

Deide’s plan involves three-member panels appointed by elected trustees and including a parent, a school administrator and another veteran teacher in the same district reviewing the performance of teachers during their fifth year on the job and every five years after that. Using criteria established by each local school board, the panels would recommend whether teachers should continue as they are or be placed on a “performance improvement plan” of the panel’s design.

The recommendations would only be advisory and not binding on trustees.

Idaho law now requires annual teacher evaluations by school administrators, but Deide said those too often become routine and cursory. His proposal would provide a mechanism for looking deeper at how educators are doing their jobs.

“All of us in our work need feedback on a regular basis. We do better with feedback,” he said. “It is a higher standard than is currently being required, but without the negative effect of being able to fire based upon it.”

Idaho Education Association President Robin Nettinga said her organization and the National Education Association - which are protective of teachers’ employment rights - in recent years have embraced the concept of local peer review.

But the addition of a parent who might have an ax to grind and an administrator - even one not directly supervising the teacher involved - casts a different light on Deide’s proposal. Nettinga said she would fight to stop such a plan from becoming law.

She particularly questioned the potential validity of performance reviews conducted by parents with no experience in personnel matters or the issues involved in classroom teaching.

Democratic Rep. Shirley Ringo, a high school teacher in Moscow, said being appointed by the school board to such a review panel also could cause problems for educators in continuing to work with colleagues they might have to evaluate.

“I’m just a little concerned about my relationship with the person across the hall if I’m put in this position,” Ringo said.

Also proposed to the committee Wednesday was legislation drafted by leaders of the Idaho Education Association, Idaho School Boards Association and Idaho Association of School Administrators aimed at helping new teachers succeed.

The proposal - some portions of which Deide included in drafts of his own - calls for establishing three categories of contracts for teachers in their first three years on the job and providing local and regional support systems to help them become as effective as possible in the classroom.