D214 approves new teacher evaluation process

After nearly six months of meetings between the district and teachers’ union, North Suburban High School District 214 passed a staff professional development and evaluation plan on Thursday that includes student performance in teacher evaluations.

The new plan comes in advance of state legislation that goes into effect in June requiring all districts to make certain changes to the teacher evaluation, said Superintendent Dave Schuler.

Under the agreement, teachers will be evaluated every year for the first four years of employment before receiving tenure and tenured teachers will be evaluated every two years, with criteria including goal setting, student feedback, classroom observations, portfolios, and self-evaluation.

Student performance data will be a factor in staff evaluations, but according to the plan District 214 will use a combination of different sources to collect that data including school attendance numbers, graduation rates and AP tests in addition to test scores.

The District 214 teachers association approved the plan last week with 75 percent of the vote.

Board President James Perkins said he is proud of the system and hopes it will move toward holding teachers accountable in a way more similar to what happens in the private sector and that other districts will take note.

“Our district has set the bar for others to model after, and that’s a tremendous accomplishment,” Perkins said.

Although the district has been working with the education association since November, Board Member Bill Dussling said it will take even more work to actually implement the plan.

“That’s where the real work comes in, keeping the system working,” he said. “This is a great plan, but there’s also a lot of work in here to actually make this plan work.”

The education association’s leadership has said they will monitor the implementation to determine if any changes are needed.

Although items typically appear before the school board for discussion one meeting before being voted upon, the 180 days given to the district under state law to create such a plan runs out by the end of the week, so normal protocol was changed and Thursday’s meeting was the first time the new plan was mentioned.