PA’s minimum teacher salary ($18,500) hasn’t increased since 1988. PA's minimum wage ($7.25), hasn’t been raised since 2009, and is lower than all neighboring states.
Legislation introduced by Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster) and Rep. Jesse Topper (R-Bedford) will overhaul the current educator evaluation system, significantly reducing the impact of student performance, including standardized tests, in favor of classroom observation and practice.
The bills would:
*UPDATE: Sen. Aument's bill, SB 751, passed the Senate in June. In November, the House Education Committee approved it. It is now several steps closer to reaching Gov. Wolf's desk.
PSEA President Rich Askey commended the Pennsylvania House Education Committee for advancing legislation to reform the state’s educator evaluation system.
Senate Bill 751 would change the evaluation system by increasing emphasis on direct classroom observation and practice from 50 percent to 70 percent of most educators’ evaluations. The remaining 30 percent would rely on building-level and teacher-specific student achievement data. This would include student performance on standardized testing but at a reduced weight.
The building-level data would also be adjusted by a measure of poverty for each individual school building. The teacher-specific student achievement data includes student performance measures that relate directly to an educator’s practice each academic year.
“This is a major reform that will improve the evaluation system for every educator in Pennsylvania,” Askey said. “PSEA strongly supports it, and we’re very hopeful that the full House will vote on this bill soon.”
An effective educator is key to student success, and every student deserves to have high-quality educators in their schools and classrooms.
Unfortunately, administrators and educators agree that the current evaluation system isn’t working. The current system doesn’t support the continuous improvement of educators in their practice and professionalism as promised in 2012, because it:
Sen. Aument and Rep. Topper have engaged in a deliberative process to engage PSEA and other stakeholder groups in a dialogue to make significant improvements to the evaluation system.
Under current law (Act 82 of 2012), student performance components, based in part on standardized test results, account for 50 percent of an educator’s evaluation, while classroom observation and practice account for the other 50 percent.
SB 751 and HB 1607 would realign those weights, basing 70 percent of an educator’s evaluation on classroom observation and practice and 30 percent on student performance components.
By reducing the impact of standardized tests and student performance components, increasing the focus on classroom observation and practice, and taking the first step to recognize poverty's mpact on achievement, PA can improve the evaluation system.
The bill would simplify and revise the building-level measure School Percentage Profile (SPP) by mitigating several indicators, particularly those that unfairly penalize employees in struggling schools. The building level measure would also be adjusted by a “challenge multiplier” based on the population of economically disadvantaged students in school building in order to account for some of the strong correlation between poverty and standardized test performance.
The current Teacher Specific and Elective Data (student learning outcome) components would be combined into one overall category with each being worth 10 percent to close out the remaining 20 percent.
SB 751 and HB 1607 take a step forward in recognizing the impact that student poverty has on student achievement. The proposal would adjust the building-level measure by a “challenge multiplier” based on the population of economically disadvantaged students in each school building. This accounts for some of the strong correlation between poverty and standardized test performance.
Poverty affects students well beyond the classroom, often hampering their health and well-being, language development, and access to books and learning opportunities. Students living in poverty often score lower on standardized tests than students in middle-income and more affluent districts.
If Pennsylvania is going to continue to use test data in educator evaluations, the commonwealth must control for factors beyond the control of educators and students. These bills take an important first step in acknowledging the relationship between poverty and student achievement.
In addition to the components above, educators have identified other important adjustments that we believe would improve the current evaluation system. Sen. Aument and Rep. Topper’s legislation takes this input into account and addresses key issues that will improve the system overall.
