Education Experts Protest Planned Teacher Evaluation System
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago school system's new teacher evaluation program is running into some questions.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bob Conway reports, a group of education researchers wants Mayor Rahm Emanuel to delay the widespread implementation of the program and move forward at a more modest pace.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bob Conway reports
Podcast
They group says a slower pace of implementation will provide a better indication of just how much of a teacher's evaluation should be tied to student achievement, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The group, Chicagoland Reformers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE), is made up of 88 education professors and researchers from 15 local universities, the Tribune reported. They delivered a letter to Mayor Emanuel, Chicago Public Schools chief executive officer Jean-Claude Brizard and the Chicago School Board on Monday, calling the planned evaluation system "flawed," the newspaper reported.
The evaluation program CPS has in mind is part of a broader state education reform package, called the Performance Evaluation Reform Act, which was signed into law in 2010, the Tribune reported. The law requires student growth and academic achievement to be a significant factor in rating principals and teachers, in a major departure from how the process has been handled, the newspaper reported.
Teacher evaluations are currently one of several school reform issues being negotiated between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union. Under the law, about half the district must implement the evaluation system by this fall and the remainder by 2013, the Tribune reported.
