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Legislators Meet to Hear Teacher Comments on Educator Evaluation, Student Testing, Pay for Performance, and
Other Important Education Issues
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Legislators and State Board of Education Members Gather
Members of the House Education Committee including Representatives Stovall, Chandler, Clark, Nix, and Beskin joined Committee Chair Brooks Coleman in a legislative listening session on a number of important education issues. Also participating were Senate Education Chair Lindsey Tippins, Rep. Chuck Williams, and State Board of Education members Helen Rice, Mike Royal, and Larry Winter. In the audience at the event, which was held at the State University of West Georgia in Carrollton, were Mary Hunter Hip, education advisor to Governor Deal, Susan Andrews of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, and several high ranking officials from the Georgia Department of Education.
The group held an earlier listening session in the same room for superintendents, local school board members, and principals from 4-5:30pm. The teacher portion of the event was from 6-8pm.
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Focus on Testing, Evaluation, Pay for Performance, & Reading -
Timely in Light of ERC
In the invitation to the event, legislators asked educators to come prepared to discuss the following questions.
- With a major emphasis, from the Governor's Ed Reform Commission, and the education community on the teaching of reading K-3 and Math K-5, we are interested in how you are teaching both subjects? Best practices? Barriers? Other suggestions?
- How can the state improve Teacher/Leader evaluations? The Governor's Ed Reform Commission is recommending differentiated pay/pay for performance. How best can this process be implemented? What objective measures can be used? How should it be phased-in?
- Are the changes made to testing in SB 364 sufficient?
- How do you think school climate can be improved?
Three of legislators present were members of Governor Deal's Education Reform Commission, which issued its
final report in late 2015 and stirred controversy due in part to its teacher compensation recommendations.
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Teacher Comments Passionate
Eight teachers addressed the group. While this number was disappointingly small, it allowed for longer speaking times and plenty of question and answer between the policymakers and teachers.
Without exception, the teachers who addressed the issue of pay for performance expressed deep skepticism about how their performance could be fairly measured and strong opposition to the idea of basing teacher compensation on standardized testing in any fashion. Several teachers cited research debunking the merits of pay for performance, and one teacher who taught in Miami during that district's experiment with merit pay explained the detrimental impact on teacher collaboration.
Several teachers also explained their deep concern regarding Georgia's heavy emphasis on standardized testing and were moved to tears while describing the negative impact on students. The speakers also detailed concerns about Georgia's teacher evaluation system, TKES, though many prefaced their comments by thanking Senate Ed Chair Lindsey Tippins who sponsored a popular testing and evaluation reform bill,
SB 364, in the 2016 session which was signed into law earlier this month. Policymakers requested that the teachers work to gather and submit constructive suggestions about how teachers can be fairly evaluated.
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PAGE Comments
PAGE Director of Legislative Affairs, Margaret Ciccarelli, built on the teachers' comments by requesting that policymakers explore aligning state-required standardized testing (currently 24, after the implementation of
SB 364) to the minimum level required by the federal government (17). PAGE also requested a state audit and report on the testing practices of all 180 school districts, as many districts require tests in addition to the state-mandated tests.
PAGE also asked that when considering any changes to teacher compensation, policymakers reject the idea of basing teacher pay on testing and that any compensation changes be initiated in order to attract and retain the best Georgia educators. |
What's Next for the Listening Sessions and for
Testing, Teacher Pay, and Evaluation?
Policymakers expressed disappointment at the low teacher turnout at last night's event and suggested that it resulted from a miscommunication with GaDOE regarding teacher notification.
House Education Chair Brooks Coleman said he intends to schedule a second listening session in Gwinnett in mid-August and to hold at least four more similar sessions around the state shortly thereafter.
It is critical that educators attend these sessions and share their feedback on the testing, evaluation, and pay-for-performance issues outlined above. PAGE will release information about future listening sessions as soon as it becomes available.
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