A teacher-led education reform group is proposing changes in the evaluation system of teachers and principals that doesn’t just weed out incompetent staff. Julianna Dauble,

Renton teacher and co-author of the report, believes teacher-peer collaboration should be part of the process providing educators with more constructive feedback.

Less emphasis should be placed on standardized tests, she said.

Dauble has taught in Renton for eight years, currently at Sierra Heights Elementary and is a member of the New Millennium Initiative. The focus group is made up of “teacher leaders” who advocate for teaching policy reforms to benefit all students.

In response to teacher evaluation law, formerly Senate Bill 6696, which passed in 2010, the group has come up with a set of recommendations for the new process.

Schools districts in the state have two more years to pilot teacher and principal evaluation programs before they have to implement the new law by school year 2013-2014.

Previously teachers in the state were evaluated on a satisfactory/not satisfactory system that’s now being phased out. It was a yearly evaluation, which encompassed two, 45-minute classroom observations.

The new evaluation includes principals in the same format and looks at performance on a four-tiered system. It takes into account planning and preparation, instruction, environment, leadership and responsibilities.

“So the new law values the fact that teachers do much much more than just standing in front of a class and teaching,” Dauble said.

They spend time planning with colleagues, working on schoolwide improvement plans, reaching out to the community and communicating with families, she said.

What the New Millennium Initiative is proposing also includes teachers evaluating teachers and giving feedback and collecting observations from parents and students on teacher performance. Additionally, it calls for recognizing teachers that have taken on leadership positions.

The New Millennium group wants student assessment to be a part of teacher’s final evaluation, but not just standardized state tests.

They want teacher created assessments and “collaboratively designed school-based assessments.”

The state, because of efficiency and lack of funds, is struggling with whether to keep the model of local districts bargaining and creating their own evaluation that has buyin from staff and is understood versus the state having a one-size-fits-all evaluation for everybody, Dauble said.

A representative on the issue from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction agrees that a combination is needed but said there should be an agreed-upon definition of what effective teaching and leading looks like across the state.

“A 2 or a 3 (level teacher or principal) in North Shore should look similar in Nooksack,” said Michaela Miller. She is OSPI’s teacher-principal evaluation project manager.

Districts are tied to the state legislative requirements and to state Superintendent Randy Dorn’s final recommendations, which will be released in 2012, Miller said.

Last year pilot programs were developed and put into place this year. Also, 65 districts received a grant to move forward with major components that will be in the new evaluation model, Miller said.

It is her understanding that the state Legislature is looking for a real system and culture change, as the current evaluation system has been in place for 25 years.

It would require a change in law for the New Millennium recommendations to be implemented. Right now, the law states that the principal or an administrator is still the observer.

Dauble believes there are ways to get around the law and have less isolation by having teachers still observe other teachers and give feedback as part of the evaluation process.

The Renton School District has a protocol called the “Vision of Instruction” that “includes principals observations of teachers in classrooms and personal reflections provided by teachers,” said Randy Matheson, district spokesperson.

Dauble still has hope that her group’s changes could be implemented.

She calls the relationship between the Renton School District and the teachers union, of which she is a member, one of the most positive and productive in the area.

“We are really fortunate to have leaders at the district who understand that the union is all about student learning,” she said.

Because of that she is hopeful and says that Renton is further along in implementing a new evaluation system because of that positive relationship.