Governor Corbett wants to tie your evaluation, pay, and dismissal to one standardized test.

Governor Corbett pushed House Bill 1980 through the House Education Committee this week - a bill that will make student performance count for 50% of your evaluation score.

Governor Corbett and his allies aren't going away - and neither is their war on public education.

Call your legislator now! ( Click Here to find your legislator’s number)

The message:

Additional Points for Consideration:

• House Bill 1980 would revise the current teacher evaluation system in Pennsylvania. While PSEA has called for changes to the teacher evaluation system since 2010 with our 20/20 Vision for the Future document and again in our Solutions That Work proposal released in June of this year, we must oppose the current version of House Bill 1980.
  
• The bill requires that 50 percent of an educator's evaluation be based on student performance, which could result in a significant portion of a teacher's evaluation being based solely on the PSSA test. This is a significant concern considering the many factors that impact student learning and test scores that are completely outside of the control of teachers.
  
• More than 100 school entities - many of whom are PSEA locals - are participating in the PDE pilot program that is currently underway and expected to be completed in June 2012. We question the need to rush any legislation through the process so quickly given the timeframe of the pilot. But if such legislation is going to be adopted by the committee, we urge that it create a valid and reliable teacher evaluation system that promotes best practices for educators in the classroom.
  
• PSEA supports the use of valid and reliable evidence from multiple sources to evaluate classroom, school, and district quality. House Bill 1980 does not ensure validity of test measures, nor does it do enough to guarantee that multiple measures of student performance will be used for evaluations.
  
• Teachers should be accountable for those things they can control. There are too many variables affecting a student's or a group of students' performance to assign all of the difference to a teacher.
  
• PDE currently is conducting an evaluation pilot program which is expected to conclude in June of 2012. House Bill 1980 will silence the voices of educators and administrators and nearly 100 school districts that have voluntarily signed up to be part of this process. Please don't silence their voice.
  

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