When teachers succeed, our students succeed. Research tells us that an effective teacher is the most important school-based factor in a student’s academic success. Knowing this, Indiana set out to find a system that supports our teachers. We did this by engaging stakeholders in a number of ways in the two years leading up to the passage of new laws in 2011. In fact, many of the components of the law are the direct result of suggestions directly from teachers and teacher union representatives.
Indiana allows school corporations flexibility when selecting the evaluation tool that is best for their staff and students. As long as the evaluation meets the basic guidelines outlined in state law, local administrators may create their own tool or choose an existing evaluation tool, like Indiana’s RISE model or a nationally recognized tool like TAP or McREL.
The Indiana Department of Education just completed a year-long statewide teacher evaluation pilot involving six school corporations. Bloomfield School District, Greensburg Community Schools and Fort Wayne Community Schools piloted the state’s evaluation tool, called RISE. The other three corporations piloted alternative tools — Beech Grove City Schools piloted TAP, Bremen Public Schools piloted McREL and MSD Warren Township piloted a locally created tool.
Beginning this school year, every school corporation will implement an educator evaluation tool, just as the six pilot corporations did. The goal of teacher evaluations should be to uplift teachers at all levels, helping everyone improve.
Without quality evaluations, struggling teachers do not receive the support they need and the teachers driving the most success are not recognized.
Teachers, like all of us, are lifelong learners, and even the best deserve opportunities to improve. Professionals in many lines of work expect and receive regular performance evaluations, and it is no different in education. Teachers at all levels deserve regular feedback to inform their instruction.
These evaluations should tie professional development to evaluation feedback, so all teachers can continue learning how to reach their students more effectively.
Based on my classroom visits throughout the state, I can absolutely say there is a positive culture shift taking place in our schools. Indiana’s teachers are reporting an increase in collaboration and positive conversations surrounding student learning. Principals are focusing more of their efforts on developing and supporting their teaching staff. They are in classrooms more than ever, and teachers value them as a resource.
This is exactly the shift we were hoping to see, and I know many educators are encouraged by the changes.
Eileen McGinley, a fifth-grade teacher in Warren Township, said it best in a recent letter to The Indianapolis Star: “My goal is the same as many teachers — to be an exceptional educator. I am relieved there is a system in place now that provides coaching and feedback to accomplish my objective.
“I am thankful there is now a sense of accountability and data to support what I do all day. I believe the new evaluation system is beneficial for the students, teachers and the profession.”
I am confident Indiana’s educators have what it takes to lead our next generation to success. Now let’s all pledge to support our talented educators in this most important work, because every child deserves to learn — and can learn — with an exceptional teacher in the classroom.
— Dr. Tony Bennett
Indiana Superintendent
of Public Instruction
IndianapolisFLASHPOINT: Quality evaluations support educators
When teachers succeed, our students succeed. Research tells us that an effective teacher is the most important school-based factor in a student’s academic success. Knowing this, Indiana set out to find a system that supports our teachers. We did this by engaging stakeholders in a number of ways in the two years leading up to the passage of new laws in 2011. In fact, many of the components of the law are the direct result of suggestions directly from teachers and teacher union representatives.
Indiana allows school corporations flexibility when selecting the evaluation tool that is best for their staff and students. As long as the evaluation meets the basic guidelines outlined in state law, local administrators may create their own tool or choose an existing evaluation tool, like Indiana’s RISE model or a nationally recognized tool like TAP or McREL.
The Indiana Department of Education just completed a year-long statewide teacher evaluation pilot involving six school corporations. Bloomfield School District, Greensburg Community Schools and Fort Wayne Community Schools piloted the state’s evaluation tool, called RISE. The other three corporations piloted alternative tools — Beech Grove City Schools piloted TAP, Bremen Public Schools piloted McREL and MSD Warren Township piloted a locally created tool.
Beginning this school year, every school corporation will implement an educator evaluation tool, just as the six pilot corporations did. The goal of teacher evaluations should be to uplift teachers at all levels, helping everyone improve.
Without quality evaluations, struggling teachers do not receive the support they need and the teachers driving the most success are not recognized.
Teachers, like all of us, are lifelong learners, and even the best deserve opportunities to improve. Professionals in many lines of work expect and receive regular performance evaluations, and it is no different in education. Teachers at all levels deserve regular feedback to inform their instruction.
These evaluations should tie professional development to evaluation feedback, so all teachers can continue learning how to reach their students more effectively.
Based on my classroom visits throughout the state, I can absolutely say there is a positive culture shift taking place in our schools. Indiana’s teachers are reporting an increase in collaboration and positive conversations surrounding student learning. Principals are focusing more of their efforts on developing and supporting their teaching staff. They are in classrooms more than ever, and teachers value them as a resource.
This is exactly the shift we were hoping to see, and I know many educators are encouraged by the changes.
Eileen McGinley, a fifth-grade teacher in Warren Township, said it best in a recent letter to The Indianapolis Star: “My goal is the same as many teachers — to be an exceptional educator. I am relieved there is a system in place now that provides coaching and feedback to accomplish my objective.
“I am thankful there is now a sense of accountability and data to support what I do all day. I believe the new evaluation system is beneficial for the students, teachers and the profession.”
I am confident Indiana’s educators have what it takes to lead our next generation to success. Now let’s all pledge to support our talented educators in this most important work, because every child deserves to learn — and can learn — with an exceptional teacher in the classroom.
— Dr. Tony Bennett
Indiana Superintendent
of Public Instruction
Indianapolis
Opinion
FLASHPOINT: Quality evaluations support educators
- Opinion
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RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
Someone wrote or said a few years ago a statement that would define the word “Hoosier.” According to this urban legend, a Hoosier is somebody dribbling a basketball around the Indy 500 while eating a fried, morel mushroom. It did not define me, at the time.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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READERS' FORUM: May 17, 2013
Hinduism doesn’t deserve ridicule — Shefali Purohit, Terre Haute
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RONN MOTT: Israel’s Air Force
Recently the Israeli Air Force bombed and rocketed a convoy leaving Syria going to Lebanon with rockets that were going to be used to attack Israel. It did not get there. It was destroyed.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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Readers' Forum: May 16, 2013
Moving Deming folks sounds ‘nuts’
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Readers' Forum: May 15, 2013
Participants rise to the challenge: I would like to write a letter congratulating all the Wabash Valley Roadrunners that competed in the One America Indianapolis Mini Marathon.
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RONN MOTT: Media merry-go-round
Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. That isn’t a unique phrase to this writer or to this era in time. But, when it comes to the musical chairs of broadcasting, it certainly applies.
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LIZ CIANCONE: Courts see a different appearance than cops
Have you ever noticed the transformation between the arrest of an accused lawbreaker and the first appearance in court?
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READERS' FORUM: May 14, 2013
ISTEP failure exposes flaws
Community hasn’t changed its spirit
Egregious threat to nation’s defense
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READERS' FORUM: May 13, 2013
• Women’s group criticizes Bucshon
• Let’s hope this doesn’t come true
• Many get thanks for fest success
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MARK BENNETT: Life at face value: Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable daily challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research.
(Unless, of course, your mother is a scientific researcher. If so, carry a No. 2 pencil and take good notes.) -
EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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GUEST COLUMN: Nursing more than medicine and bandages
Being a nurse … Like most nurses, I chose this profession because I had a strong desire to help others and no other career would allow me the opportunity to touch lives the way I have been able to through nursing.
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READERS' FORUM: May 12, 2013
Vigo Youth Football, entering 45th year, seeks new support
Media ignoring important case on abortions
Proud to be old-fashioned
Guns in school? What’s next?
Promoting hate not a ‘brave’ act
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FLASHPOINT: Again in 2013 General Assembly, middle class generally ignored
Last year, the people of Indiana entrusted the Republican Party with some of their most precious possessions.
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RONN MOTT: ‘Raccoons II’
In the Algonquin Indian language, raccoon means “working with hands.” They are really cute little fellows until they injure a child, or a pet, or leave feces around where you certainly do not want it.
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Readers’ Forum: May 11, 2013
I just wanted to express my disappointment at the lack of response shown by President Obama after the Boston Marathon bombings.
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Readers' Forum: May 10, 2013
CANDLES event plants new seed: On April 26, CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center hosted an event called “Sowing Seeds of Peace: A Celebration of Spring” at the Apple House. Our purpose was to introduce people to our concept of forgiveness as a seed for peace.
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RONN MOTT: ‘NRA Convention’
At the recent NRA Convention in Houston, Texas, where the right-wing political hot air almost lifted the convention's building off its foundation, the NRA trotted out the forever yours political dame of the right wing, Sarah Palin. Sarah did not disappoint.
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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RONN MOTT: ‘Heritage gone’
The last high school I attended was being torn down just a few days ago. I didn't learn about it until I saw classmate Dick Mills on television and a display he had put together about State football championships in the middle 1930's. I began elementary school with Dick Mills. That was Matthew South Elementary School on South Sixth Street in Clinton, Indiana. After seeing Dick on TV, it dawned on me that all schools I had attended in Clinton have been torn down.
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LIZ CIANCONE: We always want more than we need
Washington seems more preoccupied with the unemployment rate than they are about the constant stalemate. Still with thousands out of work and the unemployment rate hovering somewhere between 7 percent and 9 percent, it does deserve more than a passing nod.
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FLASHPOINT: Indiana lawmakers reinforced school safety mechanisms
Nothing is more important to me than the safety of my children. Every parent has felt that instant, apprehensive rush when their child plays too close to the street or falls down while playing soccer and it is our responsibility as parents to implement every safety mechanism we can muster to protect our kids.
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READERS’ FORUM: May 6, 2013
• Money drives our newfound ‘needs’
• Guns not the only dangerous objects
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MARK BENNETT: Should I stay or should I go?
Some have their Bill Clinton-era Cavalier packed (with the trunk bungee-ed shut), apartment cleaned (except for the fridge), and iPhone GPS locked onto the fastest route out of Terre Haute. Others are staying — until they find a better job, or because they’re starting a career here, or because this town feels like home. In each case, a new stage of life begins today.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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College Class of '13 gets a little extra advice
Local college grads will hear commencement speakers offer life and career advice this month. We’re offering them an extra dose here from folks who’ve found success in various vocations and regions of the nation. Many have Terre Haute roots.
- More Opinion Headlines
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RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
Coffee Run Leads to Hatchet Hitchhiker Arrest
Conn. Commuter Trains Collide; 60 Go to Hospital
Raw: Driver Ejected From Truck, Over Bridge
Fmr. IRS Head Insists No Politics in Targeting
CDC: Fecal Bacteria Common in Swimming Pools
Lotto Fever Sweeps the Country
Raw: Germany Protestors Picket Barbie House
China, Others Want What's Under the Arctic Ice
NM Mom Chases Down Child Abductor
NTSB Begins Investigation Into Conn. Train Crash
Raw: 6 Die in Russian Ship Fire
Raw: Suicide Bomber Kills 2 Americans, 13 Others
Raw: Crash Sends Car Into Fla. Pool
Probe Begins After Conn. Commuter Trains Crash
One Million Evacuated As Cyclone Hits Bangladesh
Raw: Pope Frees Doves From Cage
$1 Million in Jewels Stolen at Cannes Film Fest
Raw: Texas Gov. Flies Over Tornado Damage
Raw: Obama Sits Down With Elementary Kids
Dying Man's Blinks Lead to Murder Conviction
Coffee Stop Leads To Arrest Of YouTube Sensation Wanted For Murder
Bearded Dragon Reunited With Owner
Marine Reunited with Warzone Companion
Beyonce Is Pregnant!
SF baseball player overpaid $500,000 RETURNS money -- and team says KEEP IT
Dad returns from Afghanistan, surprises family during Rays' first pitch
See Jennifer Lopez's New $10m Hamptons Mansion
Woman tricked into taking abortion pill
Emma Watson Goes Pantless
IRS scandal: Republicans seek to tie Obama to agency's woes
Play of the Day: Flipping to Safety
Pregnant Kim Kardashian Squeezes Her Swollen Feet Into Stilettos
Top Videos of the Week: Angry Taco Bell Guy, Glacier Moves on House, Dog Hates Baths
Cindy Crawford Stuns At Cannes
Raw: Marines Come to Obama's Aid in the Rain
CUTE: Monkey shares lollipop with dog, then HITS pooch on head with it
Miranda Kerr Looks Sexy in a Bikini Photo Shoot
