Teacher Evaluations Get Exceedingly More Difficult

In 2010, many teachers were laid off based on a few factors, the first of which was certification, and the second was based on PDAS evaluations. This came as a surprise to many teachers because PDAS carried little or no weight to it in the past. Teachers have always wanted to be recognized for the hard work they do, but a few Proficients here and Exceeds there did not make the difference of deciding whether or not a long standing teacher lost their job. Now it does.

So this report from FBISD Administration to principles is even more disturbing. In November of 2010, Principles were warned not to give "Exceeds" in Domain IV (the area that covers Discipline) for teachers unless they had served on a committee. Sounds easy unless those committees were approved in the Summer. And "Proficient" is not a "bad word". While that catch phrase may be true for the evaluator, it's almost certain to leave a bad taste in the mouth of the educator who loses her job over it.

The most important points that all teachers need to be aware of is this:

• our administrative team is aware of this and all teachers will be scored consistently based on the instrument
• Proficient is not a bad/poor rating to receive. In fact, Proficient is considered a high level of performance, whereas "teaching behaviors that result in considerable impact on student learning and that are demonstrated a high percentage of the time and with a high percentage of students (80-89%) are proficient." - this is taken from the United Educators Association of Texas PDAS resource, page 3.

For teachers interested in earning Exceeds Expectations, here are some options that meet the expectation of Exceeds:

• serving on our CBLT and being involved in making/leading decision making on the above-mentioned topics (we made some decisions at the beginning of the year regarding student movement in the halls, RR usage and no students leaving first 10 and last 10 minutes, etc.)
• serving on other committees as created that address discipline and other management procedures
• a teacher can earn Exceeds should they have an idea on how to improve discipline or other management procedures and once approved, help lead that process to fruition.