June 27, 2007 - The Tucson Citizen reported on the National Council on Teacher Quality report.
While annual reviews may be a fact of life in many businesses, only about a quarter of states require annual evaluations for teachers, according to the report. Hawaii, Missouri and Tennessee let teachers go as long as five years without a formal review, the report says.They provide this additional summarized information:
And only about half the states require reviews to include a classroom observation.
GRADING TEACHERS
Fourteen states require teachers to have annual evaluations: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wyoming. ** (See Below)
States vary in how quickly they give public school teachers job security [TENURE] after a probationary period:
● After one year: North Dakota.
● After two years: California, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, Vermont and Washington.
● After three years: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
● After four years: Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan and North Carolina.
● After five years: Indiana and Missouri.
● There is no state policy regarding tenure in Wisconsin or in the District of Columbia.
Source: National Council on Teacher Quality
The newspaper does not provide a link to the report. It can be found at the think tank's web site. PDF.
Some Findings:
** Only 14 states require annual evaluations, and only 7 direct districts that they can dismiss teachers after two unsatisfactory evaluations.
(Report page 7, PDF page 9)
States are not paying enough attention to who goes into teaching.
(Pg 7, PDF 9 )
States do not appropriately oversee teacher preparation programs
(Pg 8, PDF 10 )
Twenty-three states still allow some teachers trained for the elementary classroom to teach seventh and eighth grades.
(Pg 9, PDF 11)
The interests of adults frequently come before the needs of the children.
(Pg 11 - PDF 13)
Only 4 states require classroom effectiveness to be the preponderant criterion for evaluating teacher performance, with other states giving equal weight to factors such as attending faculty meetings.Only 3 states require teachers to pass licensure tests before entering the classroom.
