We have been notified that the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has received a public records request from the Plain Dealer for individual teacher value-added rating data for the teachers in Race to the Top Districts which includes CH-UH.
Teacher-level, value-added reports have been provided for participants teaching grades 4-8, reading and math, through Race to the Top for last school year. The reports would identify roughly 9000 teachers across the state.
The “value-added analysis” is part of the state’s Race to the Top school improvement drive and will eventually expand statewide and will become part of the new teacher evaluation system.House Bill 153 requires the implementation of teacher-level value-added statewide by 2013-14 as a measure of student growth for the teacher evaluation system.
According to the PD reporter who made the public records request, the purpose is to determine if there are linkages between the values added scores and university teacher preparation programs. However, there are no guarantees on how this information will be reported or any way to prevent it from being distorted.
We think this approach to teacher performance appraisal is misdirected and faulty, especially since teachers of tested subjects and grades are under the microscope while the remaining 70% of teachers are excluded, for now.
We wanted you to be aware.
In Union,
Tom Schmida, President