LINDEN — As required by state law, North Montgomery Superintendent Dr. Colleen Moran announced teacher evaluations for the 2019-20 school year during a public meeting Monday.
She also recommended school board members adopt a modified RISE 3.0 Teacher Evaluation handbook, created by the Indiana Department of Education, to use as a guide.
“We had 133 people in total on our teacher’s contract — that includes me and all of the certified administrators,” Moran said. “We had 68 teachers and administrators rated as effective and 62 as highly effective. We had three (listed as) improvement necessary; those three individuals no longer work for the corporation.”
Three other teachers were unable to be evaluated due to not having at least 120 days experience with North Montgomery.
Furthermore, a modified RISE 3.0 method allows districts to determine evaluations without test results.
“The rubric is exactly the same as what we have now, so none of that changes — the calculations just change,” Moran said. “We discussed it with the (North Montgomery Teachers Association) and we would like to move to that.
“It will actually be a modified RISE 3.0 because we don’t do as many observations for effective and highly-effective staff members,” she added.
Board member Michael Shepherd questioned the evaluation method if student test scores are not included in the calculations.
“We’re taking out the testing scores from IREAD, ISTEP, all of those, on teacher evaluations, so now they’re just going to be evaluated in person three times or two times during the school year,” he asked.
“Yes. And understand that this rubric is very comprehensive,” Moran replied. “It’s all about instruction. That’s not to say they can’t tie it to student performance; it just won’t be a separate weight.”
The board subsequently approved the adoption of a modified RISE 3.0 handbook.
