Author: Patsy Crawford | Posted: 27. April 2012 02:02
An April 24, 2012 Associated Press article reported that some states, spurred by education reform incentives for more effective teacher evaluation systems, are encountering challenges in establishing criteria for the evaluation of special education teachers. Some states are moving toward teacher evaluations that consider students’ growth, but find this difficult for special education teachers because a special education student’s growth often cannot be measured on a test. Sixty-three percent of special education teachers in a national survey said they believe student growth should be a component of their evaluations; but only 21% said that standardized test scores were an appropriate measure. Seventy-eight percent of the teachers said that their state had not determined how to measure the growth of students with the most profound disabilities. The article stated that, due to the very limited research on special education assessments and evaluations, states will have to study and modify their special education teacher evaluation systems as they go along.
