Ultimately, money may be the motivation that prompts Wisconsin to do the right thing by tying student test scores to teacher evaluation and pay.
Wisconsin is one of a few states that have laws forbidding districts from evaluating teachers and basing their pay partly on how well their students perform on state tests. Wisconsin also fared poorly in a National Council on Teacher Quality report earlier this year on how states keep good teachers and remove bad ones.
Rep. Brett Davis, R-Oregon, and Sen. Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac, announced Friday they are introducing legislation that would end the prohibition of linking test scores to teacher evaluations. Davis has been a proponent of using state tests to evaluate teacher performance - he included as a possible measure in an education funding reform plan he proposed during the 2008 election. But Davis was clear about the intent of the Hopper-Davis legislation in a news release Friday.
"It's just common sense to change our statutes to take advantage of these federal funds," Davis said. "Other states are already making these moves, and it's time for Wisconsin to catch up."
The federal funds Davis refers to are part of the "Race to the Top" program announced Friday by the President Barack Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan. Obama campaigned on including merit pay for teachers as part of his education reform plan. Last week, his administration tied federal funding to that idea.
Duncan's education department will be awarding $4.35 billion to states over the next two years as part of the overall economic stimulus package. But one of the rules established by the program is that to receive money, a state "must not have any legal, statutory or regulatory barriers to linking student achievement or student growth data to teachers for the purpose of teacher and principal evaluation."
Duncan told the New York Times last week that it's "simply ridiculous" for states to not allow test scores to be one factor in determining how well or poorly teachers are performing. He's right, and Wisconsin ought to stop being "simply ridiculous." The Legislature should approve the Davis-Hopper bill, and the governor should sign.
That's the easy part. The difficulty will be in determining how to use test scores in teacher evaluations, and how to set up a merit-based pay system. Test scores must not be the only evaluation measure. There are many factors that influence how well a student performs in the classroom. Teachers and school administrators are among the most significant. It is fair to raise the expectation that their influence be reflected positively in the grades and test scores of the children they teach. But any model that is put in place also must be fair to the educators, as well.
Wisconsin is one of a few states that have laws forbidding districts from evaluating teachers and basing their pay partly on how well their students perform on state tests. Wisconsin also fared poorly in a National Council on Teacher Quality report earlier this year on how states keep good teachers and remove bad ones.
Rep. Brett Davis, R-Oregon, and Sen. Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac, announced Friday they are introducing legislation that would end the prohibition of linking test scores to teacher evaluations. Davis has been a proponent of using state tests to evaluate teacher performance - he included as a possible measure in an education funding reform plan he proposed during the 2008 election. But Davis was clear about the intent of the Hopper-Davis legislation in a news release Friday.
"It's just common sense to change our statutes to take advantage of these federal funds," Davis said. "Other states are already making these moves, and it's time for Wisconsin to catch up."
The federal funds Davis refers to are part of the "Race to the Top" program announced Friday by the President Barack Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan. Obama campaigned on including merit pay for teachers as part of his education reform plan. Last week, his administration tied federal funding to that idea.
Duncan's education department will be awarding $4.35 billion to states over the next two years as part of the overall economic stimulus package. But one of the rules established by the program is that to receive money, a state "must not have any legal, statutory or regulatory barriers to linking student achievement or student growth data to teachers for the purpose of teacher and principal evaluation."
Duncan told the New York Times last week that it's "simply ridiculous" for states to not allow test scores to be one factor in determining how well or poorly teachers are performing. He's right, and Wisconsin ought to stop being "simply ridiculous." The Legislature should approve the Davis-Hopper bill, and the governor should sign.
That's the easy part. The difficulty will be in determining how to use test scores in teacher evaluations, and how to set up a merit-based pay system. Test scores must not be the only evaluation measure. There are many factors that influence how well a student performs in the classroom. Teachers and school administrators are among the most significant. It is fair to raise the expectation that their influence be reflected positively in the grades and test scores of the children they teach. But any model that is put in place also must be fair to the educators, as well.
