Community Training and Assistance Center

October 2012

Dear Friends:

A special initiative in Ohio is breaking new ground in linking evaluation reform, performance-based compensation and teacher licensure.

The Initiative. CTAC is assisting the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio and a number of LEAs, including school districts and charter schools, in piloting a joint teacher evaluation and performance-based compensation system. The overall goal of this initiative is to employ these human capital strategies to accelerate student academic growth and strengthen teacher practice.

At the core of this pilot is the use of Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) to measure student growth in both tested and non-tested grades and subjects. The pilot has developed and is using a rigorous framework for SLOs along with an analytical rubric to assess quality and assist teachers to strengthen SLOs when needed.

For some classroom assignments, SLOs complement both Ohio's value-added model and commercial assessments of student growth. For other classroom assignments in non-tested areas, SLOs are the sole measure of student growth.

The Educational Service Center of Central Ohio and partner LEAs are demonstrating that a collaborative developmental process, with the leadership of teachers and administrators, can result in a fair and transparent method of using SLOs to measure student growth in new evaluation and compensation systems.

The State Context. Ohio is one of the State recipients of the Race to the Top (RTT) awards and is implementing teacher and principal evaluation systems that are significantly based on student growth. By Ohio law, 50% of the evaluation ratings must be based on student academic growth. The legislation also requires participating RTT school districts to implement a performance-based compensation system. The new compensation system must be based, in part, on the teacher's rating in the new evaluation systems.

RTT-Districts. Race to the Top District (RTT-D) applications are due October 30th. If you would like to discuss including SLOs in your new evaluation or compensation systems, please contact us at (617) 423-1444 or [email protected].
Best Regards,
William J. Slotnik, Executive Director
Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC)

CTAC builds district, state and community capacity by providing technical assistance, conducting research and evaluation, and informing public policy. CTAC's major education initiatives focus on performance-based compensation, teacher and administrator evaluation, teacher preparation and development, school turnaround and district improvement, state-to-district assistance, and union-management collaboration. CTAC also provides assistance to community development organizations, health and human service agencies, grassroots initiatives, and other institutions working, individually or collectively, to address root causes of poverty. For more information, please visit www.ctacusa.com.