WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia public school
system, one of the first in the country to evaluate teachers using
student test scores, announced Thursday that it would suspend the
practice while students adjust to new tests based on Common Core
standards.
Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced the decision,
saying officials are concerned it wouldn’t be fair to use the new tests
until a baseline is established and any complications are worked out.
The
District has fired hundreds of teachers under the system, which was put
in place by Henderson’s predecessor, Michelle Rhee. Test scores make up
35 percent of evaluations for those who teach students in the tested
grades and subjects.
Last week, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation joined the two largest teachers’ unions in calling for a
temporary halt to evaluating teachers based on Common Core tests. The
foundation has spent more than $200 million implementing the Common Core
standards nationwide.
The U.S. Education Department has not
backed the idea of a moratorium, which is also being considered in New
York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo introduced a bill on Thursday that would remove
test scores from teacher evaluations for two years, and a handful of
states have delayed using test scores to make personnel decisions. But
no state that already includes test scores in evaluations has committed
to pausing the practice.
"Although we applaud District of Columbia
Public Schools (DCPS) for their continued commitment to rigorous
evaluation and support for their teachers, we know there are many who
looked to DCPS as a pacesetter who will be disappointed with their
desire to slow down," Raymonde Charles, an Education Department
spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.
President Barack
Obama’s administration has offered incentives to states to develop more
meaningful teacher evaluation systems and to adopt college- and
career-ready standards such as Common Core. That’s meant that both have
rolled out around the same time, creating conflict. Teachers have
expressed concern about being judged on their students’ performance as
they are learning to teach under the new standards and the new
assessments are rolled out.
Randi Weingarten, president of the
American Federation of Teachers, praised Henderson’s move and said she
was troubled by the Education Department’s response, particularly given
that Education Secretary Arne Duncan has lauded District schools for
their reform policies.
"The federal Department of Education should
be applauding this, not thwarting it," Weingarten said. "When they’re
thwarting it, you wonder, ‘What is that about? Is that about learning or
is it about measurement for measurement’s sake, or testing for
testing’s sake?’"
A study published last month in Educational
Evaluation and Policy Analysis raised questions about whether evaluating
teachers and making personnel decisions based on test scores had any
effect on teacher quality. Some critics also believe that such
high-stakes testing incentivizes cheating, and the District is one of
several jurisdictions that have weathered cheating scandals.
Henderson
said she remains committed in the long term to assessing teacher
performance based in part on test scores, as the District has done since
2009. More than half of the states have incorporated test scores into
evaluations, although the nation’s capital has been more aggressive in
firing poorly rated teachers — as well as rewarding the top performers
with pay raises and bonuses.
"I don’t think there’s a problem with
our evaluation system. I believe it does what we want it to do,"
Henderson said. "Our teachers have increasingly more and more faith in
it. I want them to continue to have faith in it."
___
AP Education Writer Kimberly Hefling contributed to this report.