‘Teacher effectiveness’ metric won’t be added to school evaluations, Education Department confirms

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma State Department of Education said it no longer plans to grade schools based on “teacher effectiveness,” a proposal that has drawn bipartisan opposition from lawmakers.

A spokesperson for the agency, Quinton Hitchcock, confirmed to Oklahoma Voice the Education Department is not going to add “teacher effectiveness” data to the Oklahoma School Report Cards, which evaluate and assign letter grades to every public school’s performance.

The agency initially suggested it as a replacement for chronic absenteeism, which the state Legislature recently removed from public school evaluations. The department is still accepting public comment on the proposal through Friday. It has not yet announced whether it will suggest another metric instead of teacher effectiveness.

Under the agency’s initial proposal, teacher effectiveness would have been worth 10 points on a school’s report card, the same amount that absenteeism rates counted.

It would have measured the percentage of students taught by teachers who are fully certified in their subject area, the percentage of students learning from teachers with three or more years of experience, and a composite score of job performance, like teacher attendance, professional learning completion and annual evaluations.

Both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers said the idea could punish public schools for having to hire inexperienced emergency-certified teachers as a result of Oklahoma’s educator shortage.

Rep. Ronny Johns, R-Ada, was the House author of Senate Bill 711, which removed chronic absenteeism from the report cards. He said he wouldn’t have supported the legislation if it included a teacher effectiveness grade.

“I wouldn’t have written the bill that way,” Johns said. “I wouldn’t have carried the bill if it had had that in there.”

Johns said “it’s good” the Education Department is now withdrawing the proposal, but he objected to the agency attempting to add a new metric to the school report cards after the bill was signed into law. Doing so would bypass the Legislature, he said.

“I still think they’re overstepping if they add anything to it,” Johns said. “If they gather that (teacher effectiveness) data, that’s going to be some useful data, in my opinion. It’s going to be good data to have, but schools shouldn’t be graded on whatever that data shows.”

Rep. Ellen Pogemiller, D-Oklahoma City, also welcomed the Education Department keeping teacher effectiveness out of the school report cards. Pogemiller was a co-author of the bill that removed the chronic absenteeism indicator, which she and other lawmakers said unfairly held schools accountable for whether parents made sure their children attended school.

“The Legislature has already established the standards for the report card, and any future change should be made in consultation with legislators, educators and school administrators,” she said.

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.