Frequency of Evaluations: South Carolina
Identifying Effective Teachers Policy
Analysis of South Carolina's policies
South Carolina does not ensure that all teachers are evaluated annually.
Frequency of evaluations depends on contract status of the teacher. Induction contract teachers and annual contract teachers are evaluated each year with at least one formal observation per semester. Feedback is provided midyear.
Continuing contract teachers are required to be evaluated on a "continuous basis" and are summatively evaluated during the recertification year. Although student growth data collected annually, it appears this is so that multiple years of growth may be utilized for the formal evaluation. Continuing contract teachers are not annually evaluated on evidence of student growth. During the recertification year, at least one formal observation per semester is required with feedback at midyear.
Recommendations for South Carolina
Require annual formal evaluations for all teachers.
All teachers in South Carolina should be evaluated annually. Rather than treated as mere formalities, these teacher evaluations should serve as important tools for rewarding good teachers, helping average teachers improve and holding weak teachers accountable for poor performance.
State response to our analysis
South Carolina asserted that while guidelines language only states “encourages,” continuing contract teachers are currently observed in the classroom annually through informal observations and walkthroughs and are provided feedback related to professional practice through goals-based observation conferences. This practice will continue beginning implementation SY 2015-2016. In addition, student growth measures will be collected and scored annually regardless of whether it is a recertification year. All teachers will conference three times per interval of their SLO in which instructional practices are addressed. At any time a triggering event can warrant more observations with increased formality. Poor student growth results can be a triggering event.
In a follow-up response, South Carolina clarified that Expanded ADEPT Guidelines for continuing contract educators state that evidence of student growth is collected annually for these teachers. While the guidelines do not state specifically that they are scored annually, both VAM and SLOs are completed within the school year, and district SLO guidance asks that they assign a score at the end of each interval/year. VAM calculates the score each year.
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Early Childhood
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Special Education Preparation in Reading
- 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
Pensions
Research rationale
Annual evaluations
are standard practice in most professional jobs.
Although there has been much progress on this front
recently, about half of the states still do not mandate annual evaluations of
teachers who have reached permanent or tenured status. The lack of regular
evaluations is unique to the teaching profession and does little to advance the
notion that teachers are professionals.
Further, teacher evaluations are too often treated as mere
formalities rather than as important tools for rewarding good teachers, helping
average teachers improve and holding weak teachers accountable for poor
performance. State policy should reflect the importance of evaluations so that
teachers and principals alike take their consequences seriously.
Evaluations are
especially important for new teachers.
Individuals new to a profession frequently have reduced
responsibilities coupled with increased oversight. As competencies are
demonstrated, new responsibilities are added and supervision decreases. Such is
seldom the case for new teachers, who generally have the same classroom
responsibilities as veteran teachers, including responsibility for the academic
progress of their students, but may receive limited feedback on their
performance. In the absence of good metrics for determining who will be an
effective teacher before he or she begins to teach, it is critical that schools
and districts closely monitor the performance of new teachers.
The state should specifically require that districts observe
new teachers early in the school year. This policy would help ensure that new
teachers get the support they need early and that supervisors know from the
beginning of the school year which new teachers (and which students) may be at
risk. Subsequent observations provide important data about the teacher's
ability to improve. Data from evaluations from the teacher's early years of
teaching can then be used as part of the performance-based evidence to make a
decision about tenure.
Frequency of Evaluations: Supporting Research
For
the frequency of evaluations in government and private industry, see survey
results from Hudson Employment Index's report: "Pay and Performance in
America: 2005 Compensation and Benefits Report" Hudson Group (2005).
For
research emphasizing the importance of evaluation and observations for new
teachers in predicting future success and providing support for teachers see,
D. Staiger and J. Rockoff, "Searching for Effective Teachers with Imperfect Information." Journal of Economic Perspectives. Volume 24, No. 3, Summer 2010, pp. 97-118.