Dist. 204 teachers voting on evaluations

Teachers in Indian Prairie District 204 will vote Thursday on whether to accept changes in the way they are evaluated.

The state is mandating the changes, which require teachers to be evaluated with one of four ratings: excellent; proficient; needs improvement; and unsatisfactory. The district has not used such measures in the past, Superintendent Kathy Birkett said.

After teachers vote this week, school board members will vote on the changes at their meeting September 26.

The board was given a presentation on May 23 on the changes in state law that is available for public viewing at www.204tv.org. But both district and Indian Prairie Education Association officials who represent teachers declined to talk about the proposed changes until after teachers vote on the matter this week.

The state does not require the ratings to be in place until fall of 2012, when evaluators also will be required to be trained and certified. By 2016, state law also will require teacher evaluations to be based in part on student growth and evaluation.

How much will be based on student performance still is under review at the state level. According to the May 23 presentation, district officials will be responsible for coming up with the criteria making up each rating based on the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching rubric that has been adopted by Illinois and other states to evaluate teachers. While the rubric offers a starting point statewide, districts then can create specific criteria.

“Our job in 204 this year is to figure out what is to be considered an excellent, what is to be considered proficient, needs improvement and unsatisfactory,” Val Dranias, IPEA President, said at that May school board meeting. She also said work would need to be done to ensure evaluators across the district would be consistent.