Ironing out the kinks in teacher evaluations

As it stands, high school teachers won't know until after the school year begins whether they rate as an effective teacher. By then classes will have already started and schedules will have been set.

Joe Vitalo, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association, said before that can happen, union and district officials are still finalizing details for the assessments in an attempt to have everything approved by the state before FCAT testing.

He said most of the basics are covered involving 51 percent of evaluations based on student's testing performance and the remaining 49 percent on classroom evaluations.

However, with so much riding on getting the process correct — particularly employees' jobs — Vitalo said district and union officials are working around the clock to ensure everything goes smoothly.

"This is all based on the crooked hand that was dealt us," Vitalo said. "But the district has been working collaboratively with us because these are people's careers we're talking about here. You have to make sure the process is as fair as possible."

He said there still remain questions pertaining to how other employees will be rated, such as guidance counselors, school psychologists, instructors and classroom aides who work at multiple schools and those who teach electives.

Since they're not directly related to specific math, English or other FCAT tests, their evaluations are calculated differently. How different, Vitalo said he's not ready to go into yet until it's ready to be submitted to the state.

This year will be the first time teachers' evaluations in Hernando County are partially based on the FCAT — made more rigorous last year and called FCAT 2.0 — as part of the federal Race to the Top grant program

Teacher "tenure" was eliminated. Now if teachers receive an "Unsatisfactory" evaluation in two out of three years or "Needs Improvement" in three of five years they would be ineligible for a new contract.

Only those who receive "Effective" or "Highly Effective" ratings would be eligible for raises.

While elementary and middle school teachers would likely receive their evaluations back by summer, those for high school teachers would likely come later in the fall due to the extra time it takes the state to finalize those scores, Vitalo said.

"Our hands are tied," Vitalo said. "We're following the law, even though the law is wrong. But until someone changes it, that's just what we're going to have to deal with."

Meanwhile, the writing portion of the FCAT is slated to for Feb. 28 through March 1. Testing in other subjects will be held April 16 through April 27.