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District 68 develops new evaluation plan
Updated: August 27, 2012 6:14AM
SKOKIE — A new evaluation plan for teachers and principals of Skokie School District 68 will comply with the Performance Evaluation Reform Act of Illinois that will go into effect Sept. 1, educators say.
School districts had the option of adopting state-developed evaluation tools, or design their own regulations assessing teachers’ and principals’ professional skills and measuring student growth.
They chose the latter.
During the 2011-2012 school year, District 68 administrators joined with teachers from all four schools, along with Education Association representatives and a consultant from the Illinois Consortium for Educational Change to develop a district evaluation plan.
The plan defines professional practice standards so that teachers and administrators understand what excellent teaching performance means, educators say.
Teachers and principals at the end of an evaluation year are rated “excellent,” “proficient,” “needs improvement” or “unsatisfactory.”
Teachers with tenure will be evaluated every other year although a tenured teacher rated “needs improvement” must develop a professional improvement plan for the following year. That teacher will be re-evaluated and must earn a “proficient” rating or be moved to “unsatisfactory.”
Under the plan, a rating of “unsatisfactory” in any year triggers a 90-day remediation plan so the teacher can work toward a “proficient” rating. If the tenured teacher fails to reach that level, he or she will be fired.
Probationary teachers (without tenure) are evaluated every year under the plan. Also, student growth measures will become a component of teacher evaluation ratings by the 2016-2017 state-mandated deadline.
District 68‘s evaluation plan also calls for retraining and includes other requirements.
District 68 principals will also be evaluated every year by retrained and pre-qualified superintendents. Similar evaluation ratings as those for teachers are part of the plan.
For principals, student achievement growth will become part of their evaluation for the 2012-13 school year, the plan stipulates.
