The Texas State Teacher’s Association claims the state’s new evaluation rules are a tool to throw teachers under the bus for standardized test scores.
President of the TSTA, Noel Candelaria said the state’s new evaluation system a “gotcha game” that could be used to punish teachers. “It’s used as an ‘I gotcha, we are going to come in and use this tool to get rid of you,’” said Candelaria.
The Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System, or T-TESS, could mean 20 percent of a teacher’s evaluation is based on their students’ state standardized test scores.
“It’s an artificial measure of what actually happens in the classroom,” said Candelaria.
He said educators need guidance and support, not grades based on student test scores.
While the nation faces a serious teacher shortage, he fears the new rules will push new teachers out of Texas classrooms. “We have for probably the first time in history the most inexperience teacher work force,”Candelaria said, “We need a tool that is going to help support and develop the new teacher work force.”
The state’s education agency insists that’s what T-TESS will do—provide timely feedback to help with professional development.
“What we are trying to measure is student growth, did you as a teacher help a student along during the course of the year to make some improvement,” said Gene Acuna, spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency.
The evaluation is measured on:
• Classroom Observation (70%)
• Goal-Setting & Professional Development Plan (10%), and
• Student Growth (20%)
It’s the section on student growth that has some teachers uneasy. Acuna said, “The reality is student growth is a component in the new teacher evaluation system, however, it doesn’t have to be test scores.”
Student growth can be measured by:
· State test scores
· Student learning objectives
· Portfolios
· A test the district chooses
School districts can come up with their own system to measure student growth using one, all, or a combination of the options listed above.
“Those tests are not very good indicators of what students are actually learning,” said Edy Chamness. Part of the “Texas Parents Opt Out” movement, Chamness said the state’s standardized tests are a waste of time and energy.
“Teachers become very anxious and nervous and that’s passed onto students and I see a lot of anxiety among students,” Chamness said.
Now she’s concerned those tests could cheat teachers out of a good grade and cheat her children out of a good education. As a classroom volunteer, Chamness said she’s seen how some teachers start to only teach the test.
“I’ve seen classrooms where there is no Social Studies instruction because it’s not tested, there is no incentive to teach that,” Chamness said.
T-TESS is still under review, expected to be approved this spring and used in school districts across the state by the start of the 2016-17 school year.
