Unsatisfactory Evaluations: Georgia
Exiting Ineffective Teachers Policy
Analysis of Georgia's policies
Georgia instructs local districts to place teachers receiving unsatisfactory evaluations on professional development plans. The state also requires that a teacher who receives two unsatisfactory evaluations within a five-year period after issuance of a valid teacher license not be permitted to receive a renewable certificate.
However, state policy does not explicitly direct the district to make such teachers eligible for dismissal and allows the district to issue a one-year nonrenewable waiver certificate. Interestingly, the state also requires local districts to report, to a state-operated central clearinghouse, information about those teachers who have received a negative evaluation and those who are on an improvement plan.
Recommendations for Georgia
Make eligibility for dismissal a consequence of unsatisfactory evaluations.
Georgia is commended for requiring that all teachers who receive an unsatisfactory evaluation, regardless of whether they have tenure, be placed on an improvement plan. However, the state should strengthen its policy and explicitly require that all teachers who receive two consecutive unsatisfactory evaluations or have two unsatisfactory evaluations within five years be formally eligible for dismissal.
State response to our analysis
Georgia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
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Georgia
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Preparation Programs
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Research rationale
To review the process and types of personnel evaluations observed in other job sectors, including the problems inherent to some evaluation systems see, for example, Gliddon, David (October 2004). Effective Performance Management Systems, Current Criticisms and New Ideas for Employee Evaluation in Performance Improvement 43(9), 27-36.