Report says states need to improve teacher evaluations

WASHINGTON -- A new public school teacher in North Dakota works for a year on probation before getting job security. For a teacher in Missouri, it's five years.

It's just one example of how policies affecting the teaching profession vary from state to state, according to a report by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a private group in Washington.

Just as the federal No Child Left Behind education law is being rewritten on Capitol Hill, state laws nationwide need reworking, the nonpartisan group says.

"For the most part the current system is a mix of broken, counterproductive and anachronistic policies in need of an overhaul," says the report, which summarizes each state's laws and regulations affecting teachers. The report is scheduled for release today.

The group found differences in how teachers are evaluated, prepared, licensed and compensated -- all factors that affect teaching quality.

Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said the variation in policies makes little sense, but she stopped short of calling for national standards for teachers.

"I've seen some states do some good things that I know wouldn't happen if they were all in the same room trying to do it," Walsh said.

One example of how states differ from one another, and the labor market more broadly, involves teacher evaluations.

While annual reviews may be a fact of life in many businesses, only about a quarter of states require annual evaluations for teachers, according to the report. Hawaii, Missouri and Tennessee let teachers go as long as five years without a formal review, the report says.

And only about half the states require reviews to include a classroom observation.

Richard Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, says that's unwise. "Evaluations are important. These are employees that are working with our children," he said.

But Massachusetts commissioner of education David Driscoll said states are reluctant to create too many requirements in this area. In large schools, he said, principals may not have time to review every teacher annually.

Weak standards

The majority of teachers go through undergraduate education programs at colleges or universities. But states, which approve these schools, set weak standards for them, according to the report.

For example, it finds that only nine states -- California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas and Washington -- require aspiring elementary-school teachers to take an introductory American history class while in education school.

"You want to make sure the teacher knows something about the American Revolution and the Civil War," Walsh said.

The report finds many states are making it difficult for people who did not graduate from education schools to become teachers. Barriers include requiring large amounts of coursework and only allowing colleges, not other not-for-profit or school districts, to run teacher preparation programs, the report says.

"It's OK to put up criteria of quality and rigor," Driscoll said, adding that states should not "be making people jump through hoops that aren't important." The report gives Massachusetts good marks for bringing people with different backgrounds into teaching.

Similarly, veteran teachers should be able to move easily between states by taking licensing tests showing they meet the new state's standards, the report says. Instead, newcomers are more likely to have to take additional course work, which can expensive and time consuming.

Veteran music teacher Neil Manzenberger knows all about that.

He recently moved to Cornville, Ariz., after teaching music in public schools in Indiana for three decades. The plan was to retire, Manzenberger says, but he couldn't resist the lure of the classroom. "When the school buses started rolling in August, I said, 'Man I miss those kids."'

When he sought a teaching position, Manzenberger said he was stopped by an Arizona requirement that he take a course on the methods of teaching elementary-school music. While Manzenberger hadn't taken that course as a student, he actually taught it for several years at an Indiana University satellite campus.

After an eight-month dispute, during which Manzenberger said he couldn't even find the required course nearby, he finally got a waiver to teach.

"It was ludicrous," he says. "It was just absolutely the dumbest thing I've ever dealt with."

Even as states are erecting barriers that could prevent qualified people from teaching, they also are making it too easy for unqualified people to get in, the report says.

For example, the authors say states are letting novice teachers into classrooms before they have passed state licensing tests.

Just three states -- New Jersey, New Mexico and New York -- require new teachers to pass such tests before entering the classroom. Many states give teachers one year to pass, but 20 states let people teach for three years or more without passing, the report says.

"Licensing tests serve a critical purpose," says the report. "They provide the public with assurance that a person meets the minimal qualifications to be a teacher."