Urgent

Please contact members urging them to call their legislators NOW!

The House is taking up bills (HB 5623 & HB 5636) which would:
--Require districts use "data on student growth" as a "significant" factor in teacher evaluations. It defines "significant" as 60%!
--Require districts to implement what many have called "pay for performance." It states it shall performance will be based at least in part "upon data on student growth as measured by assessments and other objective criteria."

Some talking points:
--These requirements go far beyond what the federal government is requesting in the Race to the Top grants

--These ignore such factors as:

student attendance (teachers will be evaluated on student performance even if the student is NOT there most of the year)
student at-risk status
student disabilities
parental support

--This is a "one size fits all" approach that ignores local control

--Most districts have sound evaluation processes that take into account many important factors to assess teacher performance

--This will penalize teachers who work with the students who have the greatest needs.