Two days ago the Tennessee Board of Education reacted to legislation passed by our legislature and officially changed our teacher licensure policy, eliminating the use of evaluation scores and particularly student growth scores as a method of revoking teacher licenses. Instead they voted to implement a rewards system where higher scores could equate to a certain number of professional development hours. From the Tennessean (this hasn’t been fully implemented yet but would be on the second reading in July):
That proposal, set for a final vote in July after clearing the state board unanimously Monday, would let teachers who earn a high score of “5” on annual state-mandated teacher evaluations over consecutive years earn up to 20 of the required 60 professional development credits needed to renew professional licenses.
Fifteen development credits would be on the table for teachers who earn a “4,” and 10 credits for those who net a “3.” Teachers could also get credit for attending professional development seminars, taking college-level coursework and earning National Board Certification.
Commissioner Huffman was none to happy about the new use of teacher test scores:
Though billed by state education officials as a move to streamline the licensure process for high-performing teachers, Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman suggested that while it satisfies a new state law, the plan does little to ensure quality instructors. He said he doesn’t want people to be “confused” that the revamped proposal guarantees all teachers who are renewing their license are performing at high levels.
This is the right move by the board of education because it eliminates a very punitive use of test scores that could create some significant problems. Using test scores punitively isn’t going to help teachers improve and would only contribute to the growing sense of mistrust many teachers feel with education leadership in Tennessee.
One major problem with this system is that you can wind up being labeled with a bad score without being a bad teacher, known as a ‘false positive’ in statistics. This is NOT something we want, and unfortunately it does happen. I agree with the commissioner that we don’t want bad teachers teaching in Tennessee. Who does? But when we get into such high stakes decisions, I don’t think we should be playing with people’s careers solely on the basis of one type of measure.
It also seems strange that this would only apply to teachers with EOC scores, which sends the message that they are somehow more important than non-EOC teachers. Its saying that the math teachers are so important that we’re going to punish them if they aren’t performing but we’re going to leave the art teacher down the hall’s license alone. Had this stood, this policy could have created some odd hierarchies in the teaching profession.
Fundamentally I believe that ensuring teacher quality through licensure revocation based on test scores is a bad policy. We don’t want to allow bad teachers to teach in Tennessee, but this policy wasn’t the way to do it.
By Jon Alfuth
Follow Bluff City Education on Twitter @bluffcityed and look for the hashtag #iteachiam and #TNedu to find more of our stories. Please also like our page on facebook. The views expressed in this piece are solely those of the author and do not represent those of any affiliated organizations.