More Granville teachers ‘highly effective’

By Derek Liebig

The percentage of “highly effective” teachers in the Granville Central School District increased by 26 Bessen, Markpercent in the 2013-2014 school year, data released by the state shows.

Overall, 62 percent of teachers in the district were rated as highly effective, 35 percent were rated as effective, 2 percent as developing and 2 percent as ineffective.

Last year 36 percent of teachers were rated as highly effective, 52 percent as effective, 8 percent as developing and 4 percent as ineffective.

School Superintendent Mark Bessen attributed the increase to professional development focused on Common Core curriculum and the district’s strong academic intervention services (AIS) program.

He said the district has been proactive in aligning its instruction with the new standards and that teachers work with professional trainers to enhance their skills.

“The teachers work together collaboratively in small learning communities to implement the curriculum,” Bessen said.

The district’s highly successful AIS program, which Bessen said the state has used as a model for other schools to emulate, has also led to greater student achievement which in turn has led to higher ratings for teachers.

“We’re doing well on what is called the growth score,” Bessen said.

The growth score takes students who achieved similar results on state tests, breaks them down into similar demographic groups and then examines how they did on the previous year’s tests.
Bessen said Granville students’ growth score is above average.

“Growth is very important,” he said. “Achievement is important too, but you want to look for growth.”

Statewide, 42 percent of teachers were rated as highly effective, 54 percent as effective, 4 percent as developing and 1 percent as ineffective.

The evaluations, commonly referred to as annual professional performance review, are mandated by the state as a means of determining the effectiveness of a teachers. Every teacher and principal in kindergarten through 12th grade is evaluated and assigned a score between 0 and 100. Based on that score, teachers are rated as highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective.

Teachers are evaluated on the basis of three factors: growth in student achievement on state test scores; growth and performance on locally developed tests; and traditional evaluation such as classroom observations. The latter makes up 60 percent of a teacher’s score while the first two components each make up 20 percent of the score.

Based on only classroom observations, 98 percent of Granville teachers were rated as highly effective.

The evaluations are negotiated by each individual district with its teacher union, although they all follow the same set of parameters so they are more similar from one district to the next than dissimilar.

But the scores can vary greatly from one district to the next. For instance, Whitehall rated only 1 percent of its teachers as highly effective (87 percent were rated as effective), by far the lowest rate in the county.

“You have to predict student growth and hit all your targets,” said Whitehall school Superintendent Elizabeth Legault. “It’s hard to be highly effective and should be hard.”

Hartford had the highest percent of teachers rated as highly effective in the county, with 69 percent receiving the designation.

Granville was the only school in Washington County that rated any of its teachers as ineffective (Cambridge’s scores were not released by the state). Two percent of teachers were rated as ineffective.

Bessen said those teachers work with special education students who are often two or more grade levels behind but are held to the same set of expectations as their peers. Those students showed less improvement on state tests than others contributing in a lower rating for their teachers.

Bessen said those teachers, as well as those deemed “developing,” will receive additional professional development.

“They are working with the principles to identify skills they can add to their tool kit to help students be more successful,” he said.

Overall, Bessen was pleased with the scores.

“We’re climbing, but there’s still room to grow. Good teachers will tell you there’s always room for improvement.”

To view the scores, visit www.data.nysed.gov/evaluation.