Final
STAFF SUMMARY OF MEETING

COMMITTEE ON JOINT EDUCATION

Date:02/20/2013
ATTENDANCE
Time:07:47 AM to 08:49 AM
Buckner
Court
Place:HCR 0112
Everett
Fields
This Meeting was called to order by
Heath
Representative Hamner
Hill
Holbert
This Report was prepared by
Johnston
Kristen Johnson
Kerr
Landgraf
Marble
Murray
Peniston
Pettersen
Priola
Renfroe
Scheffel
Todd
Wilson
Young
Hamner
Hudak
X = Present, E = Excused, A = Absent, * = Present after roll call
Bills Addressed: Action Taken:
Teacher Effectiveness Presentation by CDE
Presentation on Teacher Licensure by CDE		-
-


07:47 AM -- Teacher Effectiveness Presentation by CDE

Representative Hamner, Chair of the House Education Committee, welcomed the committee members and the audience. She did not take roll. Jill Hawley, Associate Commissioner; Dr. Katy Anthes, Executive Director of Educator Effectiveness; and Dr. Jami Goetz, Executive Director of Professional Services and Licensure, Colorado Department of Education (CDE), came to the table to present information on Teacher Effectiveness and Educator Licensure. A handout was provided to the members of the committee (Attachment A).

13JtEd0220AttachA.pdf13JtEd0220AttachA.pdf








Ms. Hawley began by giving an overview of CDE's goals which include: preparing successful students; ensuring great teachers and leaders; building outstanding schools and districts; and being the best education system in the nation. She discussed the three driving questions that support CDE's goals for students, educators, schools, and school districts: what do we want students, educators, schools, and districts to know and be able to do; how will we know if expectations are being met; and how will we respond when help is needed and to support continued growth?

Dr. Anthes continued the presentation by discussing the core components of Senate Bill 10-191, concerning educator effectiveness. She stated that the bill established annual evaluations for all licensed school personnel including teachers, principals, counselors, and others. She stated that 50 percent of the educator evaluation is based on student growth, and the other 50 percent is based on professional practice. She stated that under the law, educator non-probationary status is removed if an educator rates ineffective on his or her review for two consecutive years. She stated that the law authorizes the State Board of Education (SBE) to consider the recommendations of the State Council on Educator Effectiveness and to promulgate rules. She continued to discuss the components of the bill. She stated that the purpose of the evaluation system is to provide meaningful and credible feedback to educators so that educators can improve their professional practices.


07:58 AM

Senator Todd asked how student achievement is measured in the subjects of physical education, music, and art. Dr. Anthes responded.

Dr. Anthes continued the presentation and discussed the implementation timeline for Senate Bill 10-191. She stated that the state is currently in full pilot mode, and using the system to evaluate teachers and principals. She stated that the 2013-14 school year will be the full statewide roll out of the system, but that the first year is a hold harmless year in terms of negative consequences for ineffective reviews. She explained that full statewide implementation and the first year that consequences for ineffective reviews will accrue is the 2014-15 school year.

Senator Hudak asked about the Educator Effectiveness Council and the timeline for getting recommendations regarding the pilot back to the legislature. Dr. Anthes stated that the council is reviewing the pilot data now regarding principal evaluations, and that they have not identified the need for policy chances at this time. She said that the data from the teacher pilot will be complete in June and then it will be delivered to the council to develop recommendations. Dr. Anthes stated that the system is being piloted in 27 demographically representative school districts across the state. She discussed the structure of the portion of the evaluation that will be based on professional practice and said that the evaluation areas will include: mastery of content; established learning environment; ability to facilitate learning; reflection on practice; and demonstration of leadership. She said that school districts can use a variety of methods to demonstrate these competencies.


08:11 AM

Dr. Anthes discussed the educator effectiveness training that is ongoing for school districts, and responded to questions from the committee about the training process being used. Dr. Anthes discussed the role of school principals in the successful implementation of the educator effectiveness system. She said that communication is key to the system's success, and that improvements to the evaluation system will be ongoing as more information is gathered through monitoring the process. She discussed the idea of procuring an online platform that would be accessible to school leaders and make the system more manageable.







08:17 AM

Dr. Anthes stated that school principals do not have to be the only ones completing the educator evaluations and that schools may chose to use peer evaluation systems as well. Ms. Hawley discussed the number of staff at CDE who are working on the educator evaluation system. Dr. Anthes responded to committee questions about the structure of the evaluation, and stated that meaningful evaluations need to be based on multiple measures. She stated that the goal of the system is educator growth, which results in student growth.


08:26 AM -- Presentation on Teacher Licensure by CDE

Representative Hamner asked Dr. Goetz to begin her presentation on teacher licensure. Dr. Goetz described the role of the Office of Professional Services and Educator Licensure, at CDE, stating that staff members review and evaluate all applications for teacher licensure, approve all teacher preparation programs, and perform all background checks.

Senator Todd asked about the time it takes to process background checks. Dr. Goetz explained that all background checks for teacher licensure must go through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and that process takes about six months to complete. She stated that CDE has been working with CBI on a new system that will be available in March 2013 and should speed up the process. She said that the new system will allow licenses to be accessed electronically. She said that it costs $39.50 to perform a background check with CBI, and that all funds go to CBI. She said that fingerprinting is still done on a fingerprinting card that is are delivered to the CBI, and that sometimes it has to be redone due to unclean prints.

Dr. Goetz responded to a committee question about how the teacher licensure test lines up with the state standards for what teachers should know. She stated that she is not sure how well these tests predict good teaching and that more attention needs to be paid to this. She stated that CDE offers 30 different kinds of educator licenses, and that the department reviewed 37,387 applications last year. She said that the application review and evaluation process is now down to two weeks which was made possible by the department receiving continuous spending authority. She said that the application review and evaluation process used to take six months.

Dr. Goetz discussed teacher preparation programs and said that there are 19 traditional programs and 26 alternative preparation programs. She stated that the teacher preparation program administrators are being trained on what teachers will be expected to know and do, and are adjusting their curriculum to align with those requirements. She discussed the licensing process and professional development requirements.


08:33 AM

Dr. Goetz continued her presentation and discussed the e-licensing system. She stated that the department will stop printing paper licenses very soon and that this will save time and money. Ms. Hawley responded to a question about the teacher licensure testing and the alignment of those tests with the teacher evaluation system. Ms. Hawley stated that degrees and content knowledge are not always the best predictors of effective teaching. She discussed a nationwide effort to look at performance assessments and their ability to predict how teachers might perform in the classroom. She said that over twenty states are piloting the system. Dr. Goetz responded to questions from the committee about how Colorado's colleges and universities are preparing teachers and how standards are being aligned.








Committee discussion about the Troops to Teachers program ensued. Dr. Goetz said that Colorado has about 75 teachers who go through the program every year and that the retention rate of teachers going through the program is about 85 percent after five years. She said that nationally, there are about 2000 teachers that go through the program.


08:49 AM

Representative Hamner thanked the presenters and the committee adjourned.