Connecticut’s state school board voted last week to prohibit the use of students’ standardized-test scores in evaluating a teacher’s job performance.
On the state’s teacher evaluations, student growth, measured by teacher-designed tests, portfolios, and other assessments, counts for 45 percent. Starting this spring, the policy would have made half of that—22.5 percent—dependent on student scores from the Smarter Balanced assessment.
Meanwhile, New Mexico plans to reduce the amount of weight it assigns to student scores for teacher evaluations from 50 percent to 35 percent.