The state of Colorado has embarked on an ambitious principal and teacher evaluation program that may change how teachers are compensated, retained, and dismissed.
Based on Colorado’s SB10-191 law, the Colorado Department of Education is creating evaluation criteria for principals and teachers that school districts will use by 2013.
The first pilot of principal evaluation will occur in 2011-12 in selected school districts. The major evaluation categories include:
I: Principals demonstrate strategic leadership
II: Principals demonstrate instructional leadership
III: Principals demonstrate school culture and equity leadership
IV: Principals demonstrate human resource leadership
V: Principals demonstrate managerial leadership
VI: Principals demonstrate external development leadership
VII: Principals demonstrate leadership around student growth
A pilot of teacher evaluation will begin in 2012-13. The major evaluation categories include:
I: Teachers demonstrate knowledge of the content they teach
II: Teachers establish a respectful learning environment for a diverse population of students
III: Teachers facilitate learning for their students
IV: Teachers reflect on their practice
V: Teachers demonstrate leadership
VI: Teachers take responsibility for student growth
The complete program, with evaluation revisions, will roll out in 2013-14.
Annual performance evaluation is a feature of employment in the private sector. In many instances, compensation relates to the assessment. A number of school districts, including the state’s largest, Jefferson County Schools, will base compensation on annual evaluation.
Jefferson County School District will use its bargaining relationship with its Associations to put together its evaluation-compensation program. Due to huge budget cuts, the District engaged in a “Summit” in March, 2011, to find $40 million in cuts. All Associations came together to identify where fees would rise, staffing trims would take place, and programs would end. The outcome resulted in a 93 percent approval vote by Associations in support of their contracts, despite an across the board 3 percent salary reduction.
A task force from the Summit will recommend a strategic compensation program that may involve two salary platforms: one for current teachers and one for new teachers.
The new teacher program is likely to remove traditional annual step raises and level lifts. Tuition assistance will replace levels and compensation based on performance will replace steps.
The new compensation system will create a capacity to increase income based on overall performance and incentives based on specific achievement targets or goals. As an example, steps based on years may be replaced by steps based on “two consecutive years of meeting performance expectations.” Incentive pay may occur for achieving specific targets, such as “all students score proficient or above on 3rd grade math assessment.”
Much of this work requires refinement and experimentation. Currently the District is implementing a $37 million Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant to determine whether incentive pay can substantially improve student academic performance in Title 1 schools. Results of this study will affect the design of the District’s compensation and evaluation program.
Districts are beginning to incorporate some business practices from the private sector. What’s unknown at this point is whether private sector practices, even well-tested best practices, will transfer to the public education environment.