Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 1, Part 3.

Present law concerning criteria for the annual evaluation of teachers and principals employed by LEAs generally requires that:<br /> <br /> (1) Fifty percent of the evaluation criteria are comprised of student achievement data;<br /> <br /> (2) Thirty-five percent of the evaluation criteria are student achievement data based on student growth data as represented by the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS), or some other comparable measure of student growth, if no such TVAAS data is available; and<br /> <br /> (3) Fifteen percent of the evaluation criteria are based on other measures of student achievement selected from a list of such measures developed by the teacher evaluation advisory committee and adopted by the state board of education.<br /> <br /> Present law specifies numerous exceptions to the weight given to the different evaluation criteria, particularly criteria described in (2). One such exception provides that, for teachers without access to individual growth data representative of student growth, as represented by TVAAS or comparable measure, 30 percent of the evaluation criteria is comprised of student achievement data with 15 percent of the evaluation criteria based on student growth as specified in (2) above and represented by TVAAS evaluation composites.<br /> <br /> Present law also specifies the following other mandatory criteria for the evaluations:<br /> <br /> (1) Review of prior evaluations;<br /> <br /> (2) Personal conferences to include discussion of strengths, weaknesses and remediation;<br /> <br /> (3) Relative to teachers only, classroom or position observation followed by written assessment; and<br /> <br /> (4) Additional criteria relative to principals only.<br /> <br /> This bill adds that, if a teacher earns a final evaluation score of "above expectations" or "significantly above expectations" on the teacher's most recent annual evaluation, and if the teacher, for the current evaluation year, does not have access to individual growth data representative of student growth, as represented by TVAAS or comparable measure, due to the first year of implementation and assessment of new academic standards in the grade and subject taught by the teacher, then, upon the request of the teacher, 15 percent of the teacher's evaluation criteria must be comprised of student achievement data based on other measures of student achievement, selected from the list developed by the teacher evaluation advisory committee and adopted by the board, and 15 percent must be comprised of one or more of the other mandatory criteria for teacher evaluations described in (1)-(4), unless application of the exception whereby 30 percent of the evaluation criteria is comprised of student achievement data with 15 percent of the evaluation criteria based on student growth and represented by TVAAS evaluation composites results in a higher final evaluation score for the teacher.<br /> <br /> ON MARCH 28, 2022, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 1986, AS AMENDED.<br /> <br /> AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill to provide that if a teacher, for the current evaluation year, does not have access to individual growth data representative of student growth due to changes in academic standards or assessment design requiring standards validation or standards setting in the teacher's content or subject area, then 15 percent of the teacher's evaluation criteria must be comprised of student achievement data based on other measures of student achievement and 85 percent must be comprised of scores derived from the state board approved evaluation model for the qualitative portion of the teacher's evaluation unless using the evaluation criteria outlined in present law (described above in the bill summary) results in a higher final evaluation score for the teacher.<br />