Teacher evaluations bill advances
by WILL SENTELL - Advocate (excerpt)

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s bid to overhaul the way public-school teachers are evaluated cleared another hurdle Thursday. The bill, which breezed through the House last week, won approval in the Senate Education Committee 6-1 and faces action in the full Senate. State Sen. Yvonne Dorsey, D-Baton Rouge, cast the lone “no” vote on the measure, which is House Bill 1033. HB1033 would link the job status of public schoolteachers in part to the growth of student achievement.

Doing so, backers said, would help ensure that students are taught by top-flight teachers, which experts say is critical to academic success. “For more than 30 years, 98 percent of all Louisiana teachers received satisfactory ratings under the current teacher evaluation system, even in schools where students consistently fail to meet basic academic standards,” said Kathy Campbell, executive director of the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana.

Campbell said the bill would set up “a more quantitative and less subjective evaluation system for all educators.” Most of the opposition to the bill came from Louisiana’s top two teacher unions.