BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 257|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 257
Author: Liu (D)
Amended: 4/25/11
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 9-0, 4/27/11
AYES: Lowenthal, Runner, Alquist, Blakeslee, Huff, Liu,
Price, Simitian, Vargas
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hancock, Vacancy
SUBJECT : Certificated school employees: evaluation and
assessment
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill encourages a school district to
include in its evaluation and assessment guidelines
specific information relating to the current best teaching
practices in all subject areas and authorizes a school
district to include additional criteria into the evaluation
and assessment of certificated employees.
ANALYSIS : Existing law, the Stull Act, expresses the
intent of the Legislature that governing boards establish a
uniform system of evaluation and assessment of the
performance of all certificated personnel within each
school district, including schools conducted or maintained
by county superintendents of education. The system must
involve the development and adoption of objective
evaluation and assessment guidelines that may be uniform
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throughout the district or for compelling reasons, differ
by regions within the district.
The Stull Act further requires school districts to evaluate
and assess teacher performance as it reasonably relates to
the following:
1.The progress of pupils toward district-adopted standards
of pupil achievement and, if applicable, state-adopted
academic content standards as measured by pupil
performance on state-adoption criterion referenced tests.
2.Instructional techniques and strategies used by the
employee.
3.The employee's adherence to curricular objectives.
4.The establishment and maintenance of a suitable learning
environment within the scope of the employee's
responsibilities.
When adopting objective evaluation and assessment
guidelines, existing law authorizes school districts, by
mutual agreement between the exclusive representative of
the certificated employees of the district and the
governing board, to include any objective standard of the
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)
or the California Standards for the Teaching Profession
(CSTP), provided the standards are consistent with the
Stull Act.
This bill:
1.States the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation
that addresses the following issues relating to the
evaluation and assessment of certificated employees:
A. All aspects of teacher and school district
effectiveness to ensure that an overhaul of the
state's current system is comprehensive enough to
attract, develop, retain, and support effective
teachers and administrators.
B. The role of teachers and others responsible for
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creating a high performing culture of learning.
C. A fair and transparent assessment and evaluation
system that respects the confidentiality of
individual performance evaluations and due process.
D. The use of successful and tested practices to set
a foundation for practical reforms that can be
tailored to fit the needs of California schools,
recognizing the complexities of teaching and school
performance and the myriad issues that contribute to
the overarching goal of improving pupil achievement.
E. Policy changes at the state level that allow for
local flexibility while ensuring access to programs
and content that meet the needs of all pupils in the
state.
F. The means by which various measures of
accountability can be incorporated into a support
structure for the improvement of teacher and school
district effectiveness.
G. An evaluation and assessment system that assists
teachers in developing their skills and positively
impacting pupil achievement, including a reasonable
approach to including pupil performance data as well
as pupil and parent feedback and peer input.
H. An evaluation and assessment system that allows
for teacher development activities that provide
support structures and allow teachers to grow
throughout their careers.
I. The role and administrators in effective teacher
evaluations and assessments, including, but not
limited to, training in evaluation methods and
processes.
2.Encourages school districts to include in their
evaluation and assessment guidelines, specific
information relating to current best teaching practices
in all subject areas, as well as information relating to
objectively training evaluators on current best teaching
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practices in all subject areas.
3.Authorizes school districts to incorporate additional
criteria into the evaluation and assessment of
certificated employees as it reasonably relates to the
progress of pupils toward the statewide academic content
standards or the common core standards. Prohibits pupil
data from constituting more than 25 percent of the total
evaluation and specifies that pupil progress is to be
measured by:
A. Pupil progress and growth during the school year,
and if applicable, multiple school years. Expresses
the intent of the Legislature that assessments occur,
at a minimum, at the beginning and end of each school
year.
B. Additional data from locally developed pupil
assessment, as adopted by the governing board of the
district.
4 Authorizes the evaluation to include pupil and parent or
guardian input, as appropriate and authorizes a school
district to develop grade-level and subject-appropriate
surveys on certificated employees. Prohibits pupil and
parent or guardian input from constituting more than five
percent of the total evaluation.
5.Specifies that prior to a final evaluation, the school
district may conduct multiple observations by trained
evaluators and peers with the opportunity for
constructive feedback and professional development.
Comments
Need for the Bill . Several studies have noted that
California's current approach to teacher evaluation serves
neither schools nor teachers well. A January 2011 report
by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning notes
that evaluations pay "scarce attention to student learning
or do not connect that learning to elements of teacher
content knowledge or instructional skills that could be
improved." This report also recommended making teacher
evaluation multi-dimensional, strengthening the training of
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those who conduct evaluations, and tying evaluation results
directly to substantive feedback to teachers and providing
a range of professional development to strengthen practice.
The bill addresses the need for a more meaningful
evaluation system by encouraging school districts to
include information relating to subject-specific best
teaching practices and by authorizing school districts to
include specified data in the evaluation process. Although
school districts already have the authority to develop and
adopt evaluation systems that may include pupil performance
data, this bill could provide a framework for districts to
establish evaluation plans that present clear expectations
of teachers and staff, which could increase transparency in
the evaluation process and create an evaluation system that
could be a more meaningful approach to strengthening
teacher quality than the current evaluation system.
Best Practices . The CSTP and the NBPTS each articulate a
set of "best practices" for the teaching profession. The
CSTP are intended to provide a "common" language and vision
of the scope and complexity of the profession by which all
teachers can define and develop their practice. The
standards seek to serve and support professional educators
in fulfilling their professional roles and responsibilities
form pre-service teacher to experienced practitioner. The
CSTP inform California's teacher credential and induction
programs.
This bill authorizes districts to utilize additional
information that identifies best practices relating to the
specific subjects taught.
Related and Prior Legislation
SB 335 (Huff), 2011-12 Session, makes various changes to
statutes governing the evaluation of certificated employees
and in how teacher effectiveness may be considered in
employment decisions. (In Senate Education Committee)
AB 5 (Fuentes), 2011-12 Session, deletes the Stull Act and
requires school districts, by mutual agreement with the
local bargaining unit, to implement a teacher evaluation
system by July 1, 2012,as specified. (In Assembly
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Appropriations Committee)
AB 48 (Perez), 2011-12 Session, specifies that the
procedures to be used for the evaluation of certificated
employees is subject to specified provisions of law
regarding the scope of representation of the exclusive
representative of certificated employees and requires the
governing board to consult with the exclusive
representative with respect to all other matters relating
to the evaluation of certificated employees. (In Assembly
Education Committee)
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
administrators need better training and expertise in order
to accurately access employee performance and should
understand what constitutes effective teaching in various
subjects. To the extent that evaluation and assessment
guidelines specify what effective teaching might look like
in each subject area, they could provide both teachers and
evaluators subject-specific benchmarks for assessing the
quality of teaching.
CPM:cm 4/28/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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