Teachers to be evaluated on new system in 2012-13

In the end, the board decided not to decide.

After an almost equal amount of support was expressed for two of the three systems, the board voted to adopt all three models for a one-year pilot.

School districts will be able to select any of the three models and will receive a portion of approximately $1.5 million in funding for the evaluation system based on student enrollment numbers.

“When I hear the dialogue back and forth about the strengths and weaknesses of these systems, I wonder if it's really about the strengths and weaknesses of these systems or if it's about who gets the money to further develop their model,” said state Education Board Member Lee Baxter, of Lawton. “I'd like to find a way to not make this decision. I'd like to find a way to go through the pilot program and allow the districts to be involved with the evaluation system that they want to over a year's period of time.”

The decision has huge implications for the more than 45,000 teachers in Oklahoma.

A state law passed in 2010 mandated a new evaluation system be adopted by December 2011 for teachers and administrators across the state. It also mandated that teachers and administrators who score “ineffective” for two consecutive years on the new evaluation system be fired.

“This system will take the decision out of the school board's hands because it says very clearly if you have two years of ineffective ratings you shall be dismissed, shall, the school board will not have a choice so it's important we get this right,” said Rep. Corey Holland, R-Marlow, who has been a teacher for 14 years with Marlow Public Schools.

The debate was between a teacher evaluation model developed by Tulsa Public Schools over the past two years using a $500,000 grant from the Gates Foundation and the Marzano Teacher Evaluation Framework, which is a national model developed by Dr. Robert Marzano and used in 27 states. A third evaluation system, Danielson's Framework for Teaching was also considered.