Phoenix, AZ–During today’s State of the State speech, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer mentioned the importance of several new education reforms as outlined in her Four Cornerstones of Reform plan, including educator accountability tied to student academic growth.
“We must find a way to fund the results we want and reward those educators who guide us into our next century,” said Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. “That's my commitment to children for the next century, quality teachers, a safe environment, a setting of parents' choosing, data driven decisions and the highest of standards.”
In Brewer’s Four Pillars of Reform plan, the governor highlights requiring teacher and principal evaluations to include student test scores.
For the past two years, Stand for Children Arizona has worked towards a comprehensive Teacher and Principal Evaluation Framework that measures teacher effectiveness using actual learning data. Stand began by calling for Educator Evaluations to be placed into law in 2010.
In the time that followed, the State Board of Education and their Evaluation Task Force did a tremendous job adopting the model evaluation more than six months earlier than the law called for, thus giving schools more than a year to adapt the model for their own use. These evaluations will be critical in identifying talent, professional development needs and school leaders.
“The new teacher and principal evaluation framework will help drive instruction and offer support to teachers in specific professional and academic areas,” said Dr. James Rice, Stand for Children Advisory Board member and former Superintendent of the Alhambra School District. “Making sure every child has an effective teacher, who is supported by an effective principal, is one of Stand for Children’s priorities, and I am glad our state has focused on this need.”
According to the New Teacher Project and other reputable national organizations, teacher effectiveness is the number one factor driving student performance in the classroom. The best way to determine teacher effectiveness is through a comprehensive evaluation framework that includes meaningful observation and feedback and is tied to student academic growth.
With the Evaluation approaching its implementation date, Governor Brewer’s Arizona Ready Education Reform Plan will use these Educator Evaluations as a tool to improve instruction, support teachers, and ensure that every Arizona child has a chance to learn by ensuring that every classroom has an effective teacher. In 2012, Stand will follow up on its 2010 work to require the outcomes of these evaluations to be used when placing and transferring teachers and designing performance pay plans.