PSEA is a community of education professionals who make a difference in the lives of students every day.
This fall, PSEA achieved one of our top legislative priorities – convincing lawmakers to pass legislation that removes all student achievement measures from the evaluation of both classroom teachers and nonteaching professionals, including the building level measure, teacher specific data, and elective data – for the 2020-21 school year.
That means evaluations for 2020-21 will be based 100 percent on observation of professional practice.
Act 136, which Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law on Nov. 25, allows educators already burdened by a pandemic to focus on meeting students’ actual needs without the additional concern that their evaluations will be affected by high-stakes standardized tests.
This law was a clear win for Pennsylvania educators, students, and schools, especially in light of the unusual circumstances of this pandemic. And your voices played a key part in making it a reality.
Changes to evaluation system are a win
Act 136 - Key Components
• Waives the state Keystone Exam graduation requirements for students who took related subjects in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years.
• Waives requirement to consider student performance on standardized tests when evaluating educators in the 2020-21 school year.
• Allows the Pennsylvania Department of Education to apply to the federal government for a waiver from annual student testing requirements.
• Gives current and future educators greater flexibility navigating the state’s certification process.
• Gives paraprofessionals additional time to complete professional development requirements because of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
• Ensures that the pipeline of prospective special education teachers is not impacted by the upcoming certification change that takes effect on Jan. 1, 2022, under Act 82 of 2018.
