Editorial Is Unprofessional

“..weak teaching evaluations”…  REALLY? 

In those three words, the Olympian & the Tacoma News Tribune have insulted thousands of hard working educators, who have worked voluntarily for a decade or more and under legislative authority for the last three years to roll out the most comprehensive and professional teacher/principal evaluation protocols in the country. 

Those protocols began going online in Sept of 2013 and have yet to complete their first year.  You failed even to mention those efforts or the fact that new, more rigorous evaluation protocols were going into effect.  So, one must either infer that you are ignorant of those new protocols or that you have deliberately chosen to ignore them.  Neither choice is one that a professional journalist would make, even on an editorial page.

You also fail to note that none of the test scores, student growth data, or teacher evaluation proposals that are mentioned in the federal government’s demand for inclusion in teacher evaluations have been proven to be of any use whatsoever.  In reality, they are unproven assertions and nothing more.  A reasonable commitment to professional ethics would require the measures to be used in the evaluation of educators be scientifically valid.  Yet, no such commitment is evident in this bill or in this editorial.

As for the flippant accusation that some folks are prepared to “kiss off up to $44 million”…  , it is my understanding that California is under the same threat, but as of yet has lost none of their funding.