Lansing — Lawmakers by June should receive a report recommending a statewide teacher evaluation system that could be in place for the 2014-15 school year.
Deborah Loewenberg Ball, chairwoman of the Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness, updated the House Education Committee on the council's work the past two years, which includes preparing a list of recommendations for a new evaluation tool.
Three Metro Detroit school districts are among 14 statewide testing one of four evaluation tools this year. Feedback from the districts, along with the council's research, will be a part of a final recommendation, Ball said.
"We will deliver a report by June. Then it's in the Legislature's hands. We don't decide anything — you do. We presume you will act on this as soon as you can," she told the legislators.
"The districts will have to respond by getting training, contracts have to be signed for the tools. That's going to take quick work next year," Ball added.
The council was created in 2011 as part of Michigan's teacher tenure reform law. It must make recommendations to Michigan lawmakers in several areas, including a separate evaluation tool for administrators; a student growth and assessment tool; changes to the state's requirement for a professional teaching certificate, and a process for evaluating and approving local evaluation tools.
More than 800 teacher evaluation systems are in place at the state's 848 school districts and charter schools, including different student-growth measures.
During the 2011-12 school year, more than 97 percent of the state's 96,000 teachers were rated effective or higher, including teachers working at some of the state's lowest performing schools.
That was the first year all Michigan school districts were required to evaluate teachers, assign one of four ratings to them and report the findings to the state.
Teachers were rated "highly effective," "effective," "minimally effective" or "ineffective" and the results were reported in aggregate by districts for each school.
The data show that nearly 23 percent or 21,638 teachers were rated highly effective; 75 percent or 71,614 teachers were rated effective; 2 percent or 1,954 were rated minimally effective; and about 1 percent or 768 were rated ineffective.
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