From NETWORK INDIANA
(INDIANAPOLIS) – It’s looking more likely Indiana will stop using ILEARN scores to judge teacher performance.
The House voted unanimously this week to repeal a rule requiring ILEARN scores to be part of teacher evaluations. But until now, Senate Republicans had been silent about whether they’d go along. Now Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray (R-Martinsville) says there’s support for the move, and while the details still need to be reviewed, he says there’s a “pretty good chance” it will pass.
Appropriations Chairman Ryan Mishler (R-Bremen) says teacher pay may get the attention, but the teachers he’s met at town halls say what they really want is less regulatory interference from the state, with decoupling test scores from evaluations at the top of the list.
Severing the link with evaluations would affect teacher pay, since the performance ratings generated by those evaluations are in turn used to determine raises.
The ILEARN requirement began a decade ago. Teachers complain if they have a classroom full of struggling students, the test scores won’t be a fair reflection of the job they’re doing.