Kentucky Teacher

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Principal Ron Combs, right, observes 7th-grade math teacher Robin Pennington as part of the teacher effectiveness training at LBJ Elementary School (Breathitt County). Photo by Amy Wallot, April 5, 2012

Though it’s been a while since Instructional Supervisor Joy Gooding was teaching, she still remembers what it was like getting an evaluation. The 32-year Fleming County school district educator said her principal would come into her room on an appointed day and she would give an introductory lesson where she got to be center stage.

“It was a performance,” she said. “It was a one-shot thing. It didn’t necessarily affect my practice every other day of the year.”

From what she has seen as part of the field test of the state’s proposed Teacher and Leader Professional Growth and Effectiveness System, she would much prefer to be a teacher now, Gooding said.

She has been facilitating the work of five Fleming County High School teachers as part of the field test, and she said her conversations have been “rich and thoughtful.” One of the veteran teachers told Gooding it was the first time she’d ever had a conversation with an administrator about her professional growth plan.

Kentucky educators have been working on the proposed professional growth and effectiveness system for two years. Fifty-four districts are field testing parts of the proposed system for the remainder of this school year, and they will test all parts of the system next school year. Schools statewide will pilot the new system in the 2013-14 school year, and it will be added to the Unbridled Learned assessment and accountability system in 2014-15. Read the full story

Multiple measures of teacher and principal effectiveness.

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Within the next couple of years, teachers and principals across Kentucky will be using an evaluation system that more objectively identifies their strengths and weaknesses, and provides “just-in-time” feedback to make improvements throughout the school year.

The Kentucky Department of Education, along with several partners and 50 school districts, is in the second year of a three-year plan to develop the Professional Growth and Evaluation System (PGES). Once implemented, the plan will count as 10 percent of a school’s and district’s score in the Unbridled Learning: College and Career Ready for All accountability system.
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