Legislative Update…
The House Education Committee held another hearing this week on Senate Bill 103. As passed by the Senate 22-15 on May 20, SB 103 would provide a new teacher and administrator evaluation framework beginning in the 2017-2018 school year initially relying upon student growth and assessment for 25% of evaluations. That percentage would gradually scale up to 40%. Additionally, SB 103 provides a great degree of local control and flexibility for districts to choose or develop their own evaluation tools for the remaining portion of evaluations.
Testimony and comments from committee members this past Thursday indicate that a number of amendments are under consideration, as the votes do not currently exist in committee to report the bill to the House floor in the version passed by the Senate.
A number of Republican members of the committee would prefer that the percentage of assessment data remain at 25%, while Chair Amanda Price (R-Park Twp.) and Rep. Tim Kelly (R-Saginaw) have noted they do not support reducing that percentage below the Senate-passed version that scales up to 40%. Additionally, some Democratic members on the committee have indicated they prefer last session’s House-passed version of the legislation that included more rigorous statewide standards for evaluation tools and funding for districts to purchase and implement those tools.
If SB 103 in any form is not signed into law by the Governor before the beginning of the school year in September, current law dictates that the percentage of evaluations based on student growth and assessment will increase to 50%, which is worrisome for a number of reasons, including the fact that a significant portion of evaluations would be based on less than one year of data from implementation of the new M-STEP. While the Legislature could technically pass legislation extending this fall’s deadline for another school year, such action is highly unlikely given they already took such action two years ago.
The House is scheduled to be in session next week and will then recess until mid-July, returning for three session days each in July and August before regular session resumes after Labor Day. As such, time is certainly of the essence, and lawmakers in each chamber will continue working to resolve their differences on this item next week.