Our union has been amplifying the voices of teachers speaking out about the incredible strain the state’s new evaluation system has created in their classrooms. We have been working with our partners in the Connecticut Education Association (CEA) and the governor’s office to develop additional flexibility to be incorporated into the Connecticut Guidelines for Educator Evaluation.
In late January of 2014, Governor Malloy and legislative leaders recommended changes to the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC), which AFT Connecticut has been an active participant of since its creation two years ago. The changes were then adopted by the council and approved by the State Board of Education (SBOE) at their subsequent meeting.
The major changes are:
- Teachers can be evaluated on a single set of student learning objectives (SLOs), rather than multiple SLOs;
- Teachers rated proficient and exemplary only require one formal observation in three years, and three informal evaluations in “off” years’
- Student Smarter Balanced Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) test results will not be part of teacher evaluations for the 2013-14 school year or 2014-15 school year, pending federal approval; and
- Data collection will both be streamlined for teachers and protected for students, whose information will not be shared with the State Department of Education (SDE).
In order to implement these changes, each district’s Professional Development and Evaluation Committee must choose to incorporate the new guidelines.
All 2013-14 school year changes were due to the SDE by March 31, 2014, and changes for the 2014-15 school year and beyond were due by April 30, 2014.
Click here for an “end of school year” letter sent to members of our PreK-12 and PSRP Councils summing up recent progress on evaluations.
