New teacher evaluation guidelines coming

Changes in the way future teachers are certified and how current teachers are evaluated are coming soon to Missouri.

Assessments being phased in during the next two years will affect students seeking teacher certification, and teachers will be scrutinized under new evaluation principles beginning in the 2013-2014 school year, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Sarah Potter, communications coordinator for the department, said the changes for future teachers will help ensure Missouri is developing effective educators.

"We're trying to give students the support and development they'll need to prepare students for the future," Potter said.

The assessments for future teachers, approved by the State Board of Education in 2012, are part of the education department's new Missouri Educator Gateway Assessments program and consist of:

Blanchard Elementary fourth-grade teacher Kristi Pennington works with student Derrick Applewhite during a spelling exercise Monday morning. (Laura Simon)

* The General Education Assessment, a new test for admission into undergraduate professional education programs, beginning fall 2013.

* The Educator Profile, a new component designed to measure a person's aptitude for working in the field of education, in fall 2013.

* Content Specialty and Pedagogy Assessments, exit exams that prospective educators must successfully complete, beginning fall 2014.

* The Standards-Based Performance Assessments, a new component that measures a prospective teacher's performance in context, coursework and clinical experiences, including internships and student teaching, in fall 2014.

* A grade-point average beginning in fall 2013 that includes a 2.75 cumulative average in college coursework, a 3.0 average in professional education classes and a 3.0 average in content classes related to the certification a student is seeking.

According to Potter, the certification process for prospective teachers in Missouri has remained the same for several years. The General Education Assessment test, she said, will replace the existing College Base test for entry into a teaching program and the Content Specialty and Pedagogy Assessments will replace the Praxis exit exam.

"The levels of difficulty will be higher," she said.

Dr. Diana Rogers-Adkinson, dean of the College of Education at Southeast Missouri State University, agreed changes in certification were overdue.

"I think we're ready for a change," she said. "I recently spent three days in Columbia [Mo.] discussing the changes. A person there said that the College Base test was old enough to drink."

Rogers-Adkinson also is in favor of the new Educator Profile component.

"It's supposed to assess the work ethic and disposition of a potential educator," she said.

Unlike the General Education Assessment, however, not scoring well on the Educator Profile component will not disqualify someone from entering the teaching program at Southeast.

"It's meant to be an advising tool that will indicate personality areas that need improvement," Rogers-Adkinson said. "It's not designed to keep someone from becoming a teacher."

Jennifer Eason, an early education major at Southeast, is a future teacher who said she favors the new assessments.

"I guess things will be harder, but that's a good thing," Eason said. "Some incoming students think that becoming a teacher is easy. It's a lot more involved than that."

Eason, who is doing her student teaching at South Elementary in Jackson, is pleased student teaching will be graded as part of the MEGA program.

"Right now, what I do in a classroom isn't formally graded," she said. "I would rather have my ability assessed while becoming a teacher than not at all."

When Eason does become a teacher after college, her ability as a teacher will continue to be assessed. State law requires all school districts to evaluate educators, and education department's Model Educator Evaluation System has been used by many districts as a guide. But in an effort to improve instruction and student performance, earlier this month the State Board of Education gave preliminary approval to seven evaluation principles the department wanted to incorporate into the model.

"The new principles have been in the works for three years," Potter said. "We've learned a lot more about what makes an effective evaluation system."

The seven evaluation principles that will be in place for the 2013-2014 school year are:

* The use of research-based performance goals;

* Establishing performance indicators for educators based on their level of performance;

* Aligning the evaluation process with an educator's probationary period to provide an appropriate accumulation of performance data;

* Using student learning, based on a variety of performance measures, in the evaluation process;

* Assessing educator performance on a regular basis and providing feedback teachers and administrators can use to improve performance throughout their career;

* Ensuring evaluators are trained so evaluation ratings are fair, accurate and reliable; and

* Using the evaluation process to guide school district policies that affect the development of educators and student learning.

School districts can adopt the state model or they can create their own system aligned with the new evaluation principles. The Cape Girardeau School District has opted for the latter approach, according to Dr. Sherry Copeland, assistant superintendent.

"We'll be going into the new school year aligned with the new principles," Copeland said. "We've made sure that we're including performance measures, like grades and MAP scores, into our evaluations."

According to Copeland, what must be shown in a teacher's evaluation is student growth.

"The evaluations are designed to make teachers the best they can be," she said. "Educators can't rest on their laurels. Until every student is proficient, they have work to do."

Todd Fuller, director of communications for the Missouri State Teachers Association, said the association had been concerned with the new evaluation system being established too quickly.

"But we realized the changes would come regardless of our position," he said.

Fuller said the association wants the new evaluations to be a success, but he would like for administrators to communicate with teachers about how the process will change.

"We want our members, and nonmembers, to be as informed as possible about this," he said.

For more information on new assessments for teacher certification or for teacher evaluations, visit dese.mo.gov. For more information about the Missouri State Teachers Association, visit msta.org.

klewis@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent addresses:

301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

1 University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

407 S. Sixth St., Columbia, Mo.