By Julie Hubbard - THE TENNESSEAN -

A new teacher evaluation system is set to kick in across the state in six months, even though parts of it haven't been written and principals haven't been trained how to use it.

Tennessee's legislature passed it a year ago as part of an education reform initiative that secured $500 million in federal Race to the Top grant money.

Critics said the old evaluation system, which monitored most tenured teachers once every five years, left too many ineffective teachers in the classroom too long, was vague and largely didn't help teachers improve. The new system will judge teachers and principals using student learning gains — called value-added scores — along with a prescribed checklist to determine their placement, pay and, ultimately, whether they will keep their jobs.

Forty-nine schools across the state, including some in Sumner County and Metro Nashville, are field-testing parts of the new system. But with many specifics still undecided, state officials say they hope educators will be patient.

"I'm sure there are some across the state who have expressed concern, but we're focused on getting this done," said Patrick Smith, acting education commissioner.

Fifty percent of teachers' evaluations will be based on student achievement. Of that, 35 percent is their classes' value-added scores, taken from students' standardized testing. The remaining 15 percent is a measure the school chooses, such as the graduation rate or something from a list of other options the state is expected to adopt in the coming weeks.

"This is not a way to point fingers at anyone, but the intention is to provide helping hands to drive instruction," Smith said.

The other 50 percent will come from a principal's classroom observation, but the state has yet to choose which observation model it will use.

Watt Hardison Elementary in Sumner County and East Literature High in Metro are piloting a model that rates teachers on a scale of one to five — with five being the highest — and requires principals to observe them in 12 specific instructional areas. Those include teaching the state standards, knowing their students, creating small groups of students to learn from each other and preparing lesson plans and the materials needed.

"At first, we were stressed. We thought it was rigid, like meeting a checklist," said Susie Turner, principal at Watt Hardison. "But I think they will be fine with it."

Before, her teachers received a two-page evaluation each year with not much written detail, other than the letter grade of their performance.

"You have to hit that bull's-eye the whole time you're teaching and stay focused," Turner said.

More observations

All teachers will have a minimum of four observations of at least 60 minutes each school year. Half of the observations will be unannounced.

It will take more time to complete evaluations than before, which is a concern for some, said East Literature Principal Steve Ball.

"This one certainly is going to place pressure on us as principals to get into classrooms more," he said.

Still to decide is how to evaluate teachers whose students don't take standardized tests, like those who teach grades below third, foreign languages or physical education.

Some Metro school board members raised concerns about the new evaluations using value-added scores when a new, tougher state curriculum was implemented in 2009-10 and test scores dropped as a result. Metro's average value-added scores went from C's to D's on the 2010 state report card.

J.C. Bowman, executive director of the Franklin-based Professional Educators of Tennessee, said he doesn't agree with using value-added scores on evaluations. Those scores were developed as a diagnostic tool to help teachers improve, he said, not cost them their jobs when their students perform badly.

"Some students don't do well on tests," Bowman said. "Now it will be used as a disciplinary tool."

The state set aside about $2.6 million of its $500 million in Race to the Top funds to develop the new teacher evaluation system. This week, the board is set to adopt a grievance procedure for teachers to dispute the accuracy of data. Principals will begin training on the new system in June.