Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

STATE HOUSE

Governor, educator exchange words

Teachers union chief unhappy with state evaluation panel

By Matthew Stone mstone@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- Teacher evaluations that incorporate student data are the way of the future, Gov. John Baldacci said Tuesday.

click image to enlarge

Gov.John Baldacci

Staff file photo by Joe Phelan

Select images available for purchase in the
Maine Today Photo Store

And a panel charged with approving at least one such evaluation model for Maine school districts to use needs to work fast, avoid drawing battle lines and arrive at a consensus, the governor said.

Baldacci has charged the five-group panel with approving that model by May 14. It's a condition Maine needs to meet before it can apply for up to $75 million in federal education reform funds as part of the national Race to the Top competition.

"The reality is that these evaluations are going to occur. It is the future," Baldacci told panelists Tuesday at their first meeting, which saw the state teachers' union president briefly trade barbs with the governor.

The panel includes two representatives each from the union and groups representing superintendents, school boards, principals and special-education administrators. Angela Faherty, who will take over next week as acting education commissioner, is also a voting member.

"This has got to be a collaborative effort," Baldacci said. "We've got be able to stand at the end of the day together and say, 'This is what we agree on.' We can't have one party running off and steaming, upset with the outcome."

But teachers don't have enough of a voice in the process that needs to happen by May 14, Maine Education Association President Chris Galgay charged.

"I'm sitting at a table with eight administrators and two teacher (union representatives)," Galgay told Baldacci. "We're outnumbered eight to two."

The governor warned panel participants against staking out positions too early.

"If anybody's drawing any lines in the sand, they're not thinking about the kids," he said.

The panel is an outgrowth of a bill state legislators approved earlier this month that intended to eliminate a legal barrier that prohibits using student testing data in teacher and principal evaluations.

A last-minute amendment to the bill, favored by the teachers' union, formed the panel, which will examine evaluation models school districts can choose from if they decide to use student data in teacher evaluations.

The legislation came amid a push by the Obama administration to get more states and school districts to adopt performance-pay systems that compensate teachers based on students' academic progress.

Panel members Tuesday said they'd like to see evaluation models that rate teachers based on more than simply student test scores.

"I don't think it's fair to judge our teachers on one test, because we can't judge our students that way," said Maureen King, president-elect of the Maine School Boards Association.

Others said they're worried the May 14 deadline is too soon. The group will meet two more times before then.

"I'm concerned that three meetings will not be enough time," said Jill Adams, executive director of Maine Administrators for Students with Disabilities.

And MEA executive director Mark Gray said he didn't want the group to invest too much effort into approving evaluation models that school districts would have no money to implement.

"We have a history of building things we can't come close to implementing and supporting," he said.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com