RIDE report: Nearly all educators ‘effective’

PROVIDENCE – Nearly all of Rhode Island teachers and leaders were rated effective or highly effective, according to a second annual report on the Rhode Island educator evaluation systems released on Thursday.
The report, from the R.I. Department of Education, also showed that state teachers and school leaders “have an increased understanding of and confidence in the educator evaluation process.”
According to a mid-year survey of educators, 68 percent of teachers said their understanding of how to set student-learning objectives increased since the preceding school year, 72 percent of school leaders said they felt more confident in their ability to support teachers and administrators through the evaluation process, and 85 percent of teachers said they had received the scores based on their classroom observations, compared with 78 percent the preceding year.
The report, “RI Educator Evaluation Systems: Improving Teaching and Learning, Year 2,” is based on information from the 2013-14 school year.
The report showed that 98 percent of teachers and 99 percent of building administrators were rated effective or highly effective. Between 1 percent and 2 percent of teachers were rated developing, and less than 1 percent of teachers across the state received a rating of ineffective.

Similar to the teacher evaluation results, 1.3 percent of administrators received a rating of developing, and no building administrator received an ineffective rating.

Providence, for example, out of 1,475 teachers and administrators, had 851, or 57.7 percent in the highly effective category; 577 in the effective category (39.1 percent); 30 in developing (2 percent); and 17 in ineffective (1.2 percent).

“The purpose of educator evaluations is to provide teachers and principals with valuable feedback on their work and to drive improvements in instruction,” Eva-Marie Mancuso, Board of Education chairwoman, said in a statement.
Wrote Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist in an introduction to the report, “The purpose of educator evaluations is not simply to gain a high rating, and the purpose is certainly not to compare one school against others. The purpose, as this report notes, is to ‘encourage student-focused conversations that can help educators make improvements in real time.’ Those who receive a rating of highly effective should continue to examine all facets of their teaching so as to continue to improve and to help others do so as well.”

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Noting that many teachers will not receive formal evaluations this year, Gist added that “informal observations and conversations about improving instruction and advancing student achievement should be vigorous, thoughtful, and on-going.” New legislation states that tenured teachers with ratings of effective are to complete the evaluation process once every two years and those with ratings of highly effective are to complete the evaluation process once every three years.

The report contains evaluation results at the statewide and district levels only. The evaluation results for individual educators are not publicly released.

The report is posted on the RIDE website HERE.

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