Florida has released its teacher evaluations. And for most teachers, the news is good. The majority of Florida teachers received an effective or highly effective rating. StateImpact Florida education reporter John O’Connor explains what it means."What that means is at least 98% of teachers are average or better according to the fl teacher evaluations", O’Connor reported. "FLDOE put together an analysis earlier this year. They found teachers who earned the highly effective rating in math, their students learned 19% more than teachers with an effective rating. Fotr the lowest raiting, unsatisfactory, those students earned 40% less… that’s kind of the difference between the top and the bottom of the scale"
O’Connor says the results still raise questions about the value of a feedback system where almost everyone gets positive marks.
StateImpact Florida education reporter John O’Connor says the number of teachers with high marks will likely raise a few eyebrows.
"In some districts, Manatee County for instance, was proudly celebrating that half of their teachers were rated highly effective. The way these systems are designed, they were designed to get rid of the old teacher evaluation system where everybody got a good rating or an exceptional rating. Under this new system just about everybody won a good rating or an exceptional rating", O’Connor explained. "So there are folks who are going to ask why are we even doing this if the results are ending up exactly the same."
You can find a database of teacher evaluations by school at StateImpact.npr.org/Florida.