The growing workload has squeezed out time in some schools for conducting job reviews, a task that is expected to grow more time-consuming under proposed regulations, which would make analyzing MCAS scores and other student achievement data a central component of each evaluation.
“What is being proposed is a high-quality process, but we are concerned about our time and ability to do it,’’ said Dave Thomson, principal of Raynham Middle School and president of the Massachusetts Secondary School Administrators’ Association. “There are not enough hands out there.’’
Mitchell Chester, the state’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said he is empathetic to the plight of principals, but that overseeing instructional programs and evaluating teachers and other school administrators is a fundamental aspect of their jobs.
“Right now, too few teachers and administrators receive valuable feedback that allows them to adjust instruction in a way that benefits students,’’ Chester said.
Many school district officials and education advocates expect that the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will approve Chester’s recommendations tomorrow to overhaul the state’s 16-year-old rules on educator evaluations, which have resulted in wide inconsistencies across the state in executing the reviews. The board rarely rejects a commissioner’s recommendation.
While some districts do an outstanding job of evaluating teachers and administrators, others neglect the task or rush through the process, providing little insight on educators’ strengths and weaknesses or ways to improve. The lack of consistent and thoughtful evaluations can also create difficulties in trying to fire ineffective teachers.
The proposed regulations would require schools to conduct job reviews annually, instead of every two years, and to develop improvement plans for educators whose performance is lagging. Progress in meeting the goals of the plans would have to be checked periodically.
