St. Mary’s County Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Dr. Jeff Maher and Deputy Superintendent Maureen Montgomery. Photo by Dick Myers.
Leonardtown, MD — The first release by the state of Teacher Effectiveness ratings” showed St. Mary’s ranking 21st of the 24 school systems. The ranking listed in order of magnitude the percentage of teachers deemed “Highly Effective.”
But the St. Mary’s County Board of Education, in reacting to the data release at their Nov. 10 meeting, said in effect the ratings mix apples (the teacher’s best friend) and oranges. A good indication that something may be amiss, according to school board member Cathy Allen, is that number 24 on the list is Montgomery County, which is generally viewed as being one of the state’s richest and having one of the best school systems.
The problem, said several school board members, is that each county uses different methods of evaluating their teachers, thus causing the apples and oranges comparison. Noting the disparity between the levels of effort given to the task, School Board Chairman Karin Bailey said, “Some may not be as involved as we are.”
The board was given an overview of the evaluation process by Chief Academic Officer Dr. Jeff Maher and Deputy Superintendent Maureen Montgomery. Maher said St. Mary’s evaluation system began in 2010 and aligns with the Maryland framework as part of the Race to the Top initiative.” He said the system “has worked collaboratively with stakeholders. We look at it as professional development now.”
The county program uses an online observation and evaluation management system that involves observation in the classroom. Factors measured include quality of questions, discussion techniques and student participation.
The process also involves setting Student learning Objectives. Each school sets their own yearly objectives. Montgomery used an example of one school that set the objective of “reducing the achievement gap for 6th grade students with disabilities by 10 percent in math.”
School board member Rita Weaver noted that improvement doesn’t stop for teachers with the highest ranking, “There is always room or improvement even if they are highly effective,” she said
In addition to the rankings of teachers, the state also released rankings for principals. St. Mary’s ranked eighth of the 24 systems in the percentage of principals deemed Highly Effective.
The release of the information came at the same meeting in which the board recognized American Education Week (Nov. 16-20) and Education Support Professionals Day (Nov. 18). On hand for the recognition were representatives of the Education Association of St. Mary’s County, Collective Education Association of St. Mary’s County and St. Mary’s County’s Teacher of the Year.
In reaction to the release of the teacher and principal effectiveness data, Superintendent of Schools Scott Smith boasted, “We have a fantastic system. We need to be very proud of the people doing the work.”
Smith added that it was hard to compare St. Mary’s to other school systems based on the data, but he said they will come back every year “to compare ourself against ourself.”
Contact Dick Myers at dick.myers@thebaynet.com
