Nevada education board wants to prioritize teacher evals
CARSON CITY — School districts targeting the next round of state grants will have to focus proposals on three key areas as the Nevada State Board of Education shifted its tentative priorities during a meeting Thursday.
Department officials initially recommended prioritizing proposals that set student learning goals, but board members wanted to be sure principals are trained in how to conduct observations and make teacher evaluations.
“Until leadership evaluates human capital correctly, I’m not sure investing in anything else in the Nevada Educator Performance Framework is correct,” board member Mark Newburn said.
For the 2016-17 teacher ratings, 80 percent will come from the principal observation. The remaining 20 percent is split between state testing data and student learning goals set locally.
In following years, observations will drop to 60 percent. The test scores areas will each rise to 20 percent.
A testing glitch caused the initial round of teacher evaluations to be scored 100 percent on principal evaluations. Under the model, almost 99 percent of teachers — even those in the lowest-performing schools — were rated effective or highly effective.
“This is a new piece of our evaluation, so we know it needs continued professional development work,” said Dena Durish, the state’s Deputy Superintendent for Educator Effectiveness and Family Engagement.
Other priorities
On Thursday, the state board set proposal priorities for:
■ Teacher preparation, recruitment and leadership.
■ Updated and newly adopted Nevada Academic Content Standards.
■ School leadership development, which includes training on setting student learning goals and conducting observations under the Nevada Education Performance Framework, the teacher evaluation tool.
Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed budget includes $4.8 million in grants for each year of the 2018-19 biennium, the same amount approved in the 2015 session.
The priorities will be considered when the fund comes up for a budget discussion, tentatively set for May 11.
Contact Meghin Delaney at mdelaney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281. Follow @MeghinDelaney on Twitter.