New Worcester Teacher Evaluations Turn Focus on Student Progress

Friday, February 28, 2014

Zeke Wright, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

The latest discussion in judging teacher performance in the state of Massachusetts revolves around so-called “district-determined measures” that evaluate student progress.

In the Worcester Public School system, the district's local teachers union requested negotiations Thursday around those measures, known as DDMs in the state's nomenclature.

“We realize in Worcester that we need to get the new evaluation system done properly and done correctly,” said Leonard Zalauskas, president of the Educational Association of Worcester. With rollout of the state's educator evaluation framework stretching through to the 2015-16 school year, Zalauskas stressed the importance of due diligence. “It's so new, and we have so many people across the state: Some people are getting it right, and some people aren't.”

“It's going to take some time to shake out the bugs,” he said.

In the midst of implementation

Approximately two-thirds of districts across the state evaluated educators under the new framework in the 2012-13 school year (all those competing in the federal Race To The Top competition); this year all districts are expected to follow their lead. But schools are only piloting DDMs in certain subject areas this year.

The DDMs are meant to measure student growth through the school year, determining an educator's “impact on student learning.” The measures must consider several years' of data and include both standardized assessments and a second measure, involving work portfolios or a local assessment.

Next year, in 2014-15, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education expects districts to have full evaluation systems in place, leading to “student impact ratings” of educators the following year.

“There will be a learning curve taking place as one goes through the first two years of the new evaluation system,” according to school committee vice-chair John Monfredo, a GoLocal MINDSETTER. “In addition, more training will be given to administrators about the process this year and they will have an opportunity to review data from the state.”

'Learning curve' to eval system

The push toward more regulated, robust evaluation systems is driven across the nation in most states by law and federal incentives like RTTT. Local districts previously had greater leeway in monitoring teacher effectiveness, often focusing around in-classroom observations, leading to criticisms that evaluations varied dramatically in scope and effectiveness.

Massachusetts' new evaluation model revolves around a five-step cycle each year, and will ultimately provide each educator with two separate ratings: A summative performance rating (educator practice) and an impact rating on student performance (measuring achievement), the latter of which will begin to be assigned in 2015-16.

In the first round of summative evaluations from last year, 92.6 percent of evaluated educators were “exemplary” or “proficient” statewide — 93.9 percent were in WPS.

“Teachers are being monitored closely and know what their goals are for the year and what they need to do to reach them,” Monfredo said.

“I believe that teachers know they are accountable and review the data on their students very closely. The majority of teachers are working very hard to meet the needs of their students,” he added.

Educators' views of changeover

Last year, the nonprofit research group SRI International was employed by state education officials survey educators and principals during the first year of the independent evaluations.

While limited in scope and not a representative survey size, those researchers found the majority of educators expressed “generally positive views” of the new system, reporting that it had significant advantages over past evaluation practices.

Both groups surveyed said they wanted more training and guidance on goal-setting and evidence collection. Concerns among educators focused on fairness, with respect to inadequate time for thorough evaluation and inconsistent expectations between evaluators (typically building principals and administrators).

A majority of educators found the new evaluation system created a “significant increase in workload and time for evaluators,” SRI found, with 55 percent of principals reporting they spent more than a quarter of their time on evaluation activities.

But administrators generally held the most positive views, while teachers of non-core subjects and non-instructional staff were more hesitant.

Not just teachers being evaluated

Principals and administrators are also being evaluated, albeit along different lines. Earlier this month, school committee members rated Superintendent Melinda Boone as “proficient” overall in the past year based on specific goals and standards.

Related Slideshow: Central MA School Districts with the Highest Teacher Evaluations

During the 2012-2013 school year, Race to the Top (RTTT) districts in Massachusetts were required to implement the new Educator Evaluation framework with at least 50 percent of their educators district-wide. Of Central Massachusetts’s 52 school districts, 26 implemented the Educator Evaluation structure. These 26 school districts are listed below ranked from the lowest teacher evaluation score to the highest. Keep reading to see where your district’s teachers rank, as well as to view the state and regional averages.

New Worcester Teacher Evaluations Turn Focus on Student Progress

Related Slideshow: Central MA School Districts with the Highest Teacher Evaluations

State Average

Central MA Average

#26 Quaboag

#25 Oxford

#24 Uxbridge

#23 Fitchburg

#22 Westborough

#21 Lunenburg

#20 North Brookfield

#19 Millbury

#18 Blacktone-Millville

#17 Southbridge

#16 Worcester

#15 Webster

#14 Hudson

#13 Gardner

#12 Dudley-Charlton

#11 Northbridge

#10 Winchendon

#9 Bellingham

#8 Quabbin

#7 Grafton

#6 Ralph C. Maher

#5 Marlborough

#3 Auburn (Tied)

#3 Leominster (Tied)

#2 Wachusett

#1 Douglas

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