Teacher Evaluations are Critical to Retain and Recruit
October 14, 2014
COLUMBIA, SC – In response to today’s Senate Select Committee on Public School Teachers meeting on recruiting and retaining teachers, StudentsFirst South Carolina State Director Regina Hitchcock issued the following statement:
“A significant part of recruiting and retaining great teachers is to show them you value their hard work and talent, and that you’re willing to support their growth and development. There’s no better tool to fairly accomplish this than strong teacher evaluations based on solid, well-understood standards.
“As the Senate Select Committee searches for ways to identify great teachers and strengthen our efforts to recruit and retain them, we encourage them to keep this in mind. Meaningful evaluations are the foundation for principals and school administrators to make better personnel decisions, reward top teachers, and provide the best feedback and professional development tools for our educators. Ultimately evaluations move us closer to our goal of providing great teachers to every student.”
Background
In June, the South Carolina State Board of Education voted to establish a new educator evaluation system that includes student performance as 30 percent of the teacher’s evaluation. An implementation team was established to develop the framework for implementing the new system. In January, StudentsFirst released its State Policy Report Card, calling on South Carolina to implement meaningful teacher and principal evaluations.
About StudentsFirst South Carolina:
StudentsFirst South Carolina is a bipartisan movement of more than 23,000 parents, teachers, small-business owners and concerned citizens mobilizing for one purpose: to ensure every child attends great schools with great teachers. Since 2013 StudentsFirst South Carolina has been fighting to elevate and professionalize the teaching profession, empower parents with school choice and information and improve the governance and financial strength of schools. For more information, go to www.studentsfirst.org/state/south-carolina.
