NASHVILLE, Tenn. -
A much anticipated report that evaluates Tennessee's controversial new teacher evaluations is now set for release on June 11.
When Governor Bill Haslam and top legislative leaders asked for the study from the education think tank State Collaborative of Reforming Education (SCORE), they hoped for a June 1 due date.
Governor Haslam was asked about the report Tuesday in anticipation of its release.
"I hope we will see a lot of good, substantive feedback from a whole lot of educators," the governor told reporters.
When Tennessee won a half-billion dollars for its K-12 classrooms from the federal Race to the Top program in the last year of the Governor Phil Bredesen's administration, a planned new way of evaluating teachers was part of what helped get the money.
It was a quick turnaround for the state's teachers and principals who suddenly were confronted with a new evaluation system from the Tennessee Department of Education that needed to be implemented within.
"We had very little time to prepare our teachers for this change, and I think that is where a lot of the confusion and stress has come from," said Paula Barnes, a Rutherford County Assistant school superintendent who oversees classroom evaluations.
The sometimes negative feedback from classrooms led to the governor's request for a study of the new teacher evaluation system from SCORE.
The governor was asked how useful the SCORE study might be.
"We are going to use them, that was not just a charade to have SCORE do that," Haslam said.
"I am firmly committed to the evaluation process, and for it to work, we need to make the best it could be," he added.
The governor acknowledged major conflict areas, such as number of in-class observations by principals or teachers evaluated partly as a group, instead of all individually, but Rutherford County vows to do whatever its asked by the state.
"And when change does occur, we are going to do it to the best of our ability," said the county's assistant superintendent.
Most of the bills dealing with teacher evaluation change were put on hold this past legislative session in lieu of waiting for the SCORE report.
