Teacher evaluation method changing

Santa Rosa County teachers may not be satisfied with their initial evaluation score under the new state-mandated formula.

But Assistant Superintendent Bill Emerson said it wouldn't be because the district's teachers aren't performing well. He said it would be because the teachers in Santa Rosa County have high expectations.

"Most of our teachers are used to being 'outstanding'," he said. "...Effective has to be the new standard."

Under the district's old evaluation process, teachers were rated as outstanding down to unsatisfactory. However, new state laws will require administrators to evaluate teachers as either highly effective, effective, needs improvement or unsatisfactory.

Emerson said only two Santa Rosa County teachers were evaluated as unsatisfactory and only four were evaluated as needs improvement out of about 1,750 evaluations given last year.

Emerson said he was told by Florida Department of Education officials that the Value Added Model formula to reach such an evaluation was almost impossible to explain to anyone without a Ph.D. in mathematics. With a master's degree in mathematics, he explained it the best he could to the school board during a Dec. 8 meeting.

The state VAM evaluation consists of a 160-page manual. The change in the evaluation process is part of the state's move toward merit pay for teachers.

For more on this story see the Dec. 15 issue of Navarre Press or subscribe online.