Using data to improve student achievement is one requirement for states to qualify for the Race to the Top funds, the largest sum of discretionary spending in the history of the federal Department of Education.
But using student performance to judge teacher effectiveness is deeply controversial among teachers and their unions. The state legislation would delete language from the California education code, which union officials said served as a firewall between student performance and teacher efficiency.
The influential 340,000-member California Teachers Assn. has long been against implementing student data as the only measurement of teacher performance.
“We believe in multiple measures as the way to go,” said David Sanchez, the association’s president. “Race to Top has merit pay in there, which we are absolutely against.”
Linking student performance to teacher compensation may not be required explicitly in the final guidelines, which are scheduled to be released in late fall. But using data as a significant factor in determining teacher effectiveness has been included in preliminary guidelines, union officials said.
Data is one of four elements that education officials consider pivotal for Race to the Top applicants and eligibility.
The other components are: adopting national standards to prepare students for success in college and the workplace, and systems to turn around low-performing schools and improve teacher effectiveness.
“What Supt. O’Connell wants to do is find ways to use data to improve student learning,” said Hilary McLean, communications director at the California Department of Education.
Eligibility for federal funds is not about undoing union protections, McLean said.
“It’s about finding ways to improve student outcomes by using data more effectively and guiding teachers as they teach,” she said.
“The president and Secretary [of Education Arne] Duncan have said that we’re missing a factor if we’re not using some measure of student performance of how teachers are doing.”
