SHERBURNE – As Sherburne-Earlville students are preparing to return to school, teachers are gearing up for classroom changes to meet new educational standards. Last year, Albany passed a law mandating annual performance reviews for teachers and principals, which takes effect this year. The new law is part of an effort to improve the education of New York’s youth by upping the ante for teachers through more rigorous evaluations. Even teachers with tenure will be subject to review.
To meet the new standards, Sherburne-Earlville administrators will be using a statewide template called Student Learning Objectives, Superintendent Gayle Hellert explained at Monday’s Board of Education meeting. The objectives consist of a number of tests for students designed to measure their progress. The results of the tests will refect upon teachers, motivating them to make sure students are learning and understanding the prescribed course material. “Teachers and administrators will be looking for any gaps in learning so that they can be addressed before students have to take the regents,” Hellert explained.
The annual professional performance reviews will also include a set number of mandated walk-in evaluations and observations of teachers and principals from independent trained evaluators selected by the school district. The presence of third party observers in classrooms may very well prove to be distracting for both teachers and students alike. At the end of this school year, teachers will have two choices to vote on in regards the specific number of walk in evaluations vs. observations, Hellert said.
Teachers who receive two consecutive unsatisfactory evaluations may face an expedited review possibly resulting in termination at a much quicker rate than previous precedent, said Sherburne-Earlville’s new high school and middle school principal Kyle McFarland. “Sherburne-Earlville is ahead of the game because for some time now even tenured teachers at S-E have been receiving biennial reviews,” added another teacher. The new evaluations will not be affecting teacher salaries. Still, there is “some nervousness” amongst teachers, said McFarland. To help alleviate that, S-E officials are getting ready to support teachers and building principals.
“The ultimate goal is to see how we can help both students and teachers,” said Maizy Jaklitsch, Sherburne-Earlville’s new assistant middle and high school principal. “It is important to not lose sight of the real objective here which is improving the education process any way we can,” Jaklitsch continued. The annual reviews aim to improve learning by increasing teacher accountability for student education and should not in theory turn into a witch hunt, needlessly harassing teachers, she said.
Another law pertaining to anti-bullying passed last year will also be affecting the new year. Sherburne-Earlville plans to improve school culture and climate by implementing a bully prevention program. Staff training that has already begun, and will continue through January so that in February new preventative measures paying more attention to student perspectives will be adopted school-wide. The focus will be on whether or not students think they are being bullied as opposed to the prior primary mode of detection relied mostly on teacher observations. An effort will also be made to pay more attention to when students are frequently getting into trouble so that nobody falls through the cracks, Hellert said. In the past there have been instances where a student has gotten into trouble three or more times in a single day without anyone realizing. Staff members this year will be making a better effort to keep track of these students, who are in need of increased behavioral learning to make certain they are spending more time in classrooms.