MBUSD plans to implement new teacher evaluation pilot program

By Ari Howorth
Arts Editor

After a failed attempt on Nov. 14 to specify the conditions of the new teacher evaluation pilot program, Manhattan Beach Unified School District and the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association came to an agreement on Dec. 6 and finalized terms for the new evaluation system.

The pilot program, beginning in the 2013-14 school year, will evaluate teachers on two mandatory and two optional standards set forth by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. These include “teachers are active members of their learning community” and “knowledge of their subject.”

“Our current system of teacher evaluations does not help teachers to improve in the long run,” MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews said. “There are no agreed upon criteria on what makes a high quality teacher, so every evaluation can be done differently, depending on what each administrator believes.”

Each teacher evaluated will choose one standard to be graded on, and a Costa administrator will choose another. The other two standards of “continuous improvement” and “degree of professionalism” will be mandatory.

“This is the first system in MBUSD history that aligns teacher performance to agreed-upon standards of teaching mastery,” MBUSD Deputy Superintendent Dr. Rick Bagley said.

In addition to evaluating teachers before they receive tenure, the new system allows tenured teachers to volunteer for the program to see areas where they can improve as educators.

“I don’t think tenured teachers would volunteer themselves for evaluation,” Costa science teacher Dan Bartlett said. “There should be, however, a way to evaluate the methods of tenured teachers.”

The committee will begin testing the program on Jan. 9, using the standards to evaluate Costa teachers. They will discuss its effectiveness and make necessary changes to the plan.

“To have an administrator evaluate a teacher on one day of lessons doesn’t seem fair,” Bartlett said. “Teachers would benefit from observing other teachers with different and effective teaching methods.”

According to Matthews, once the full pilot plan is implemented, the administration will continue to test its efficiency and make any necessary changes over the next two years.

“We will learn a lot in this pilot about how to do this effectively and efficiently,” Matthews said. “We will use teacher and administrator feedback and change it as we go so it is the best system possible.”