By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Federal education officials were presented with two possible plans for new teacher evaluations in South Carolina – one from reform-minded state Superintendent Mick Zais and one from the teachers and the school board association.

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They liked Zais’ plan.

The choice between plans was part of South Carolina’s application for a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law that requires all students to score proficient on state standardized tests by 2014. States have been allowed to sidestep the law if they meet certain conditions, like developing more effective teacher evaluation systems.

Zais’ plan uses student growth and an A through F letter grade scale to measure teacher performance. Student growth is measured by student scores on state tests.

The South Carolina Education Association (the state’s largest teachers union) and the state school boards association strongly disapprove of the use of test scores to judge teachers, the Associated Press reports.

“Educators oppose receiving performance evaluations on an A to F scale, saying that’s degrading, and what they call an overreliance on test scores,” according to the news service.

Federal officials apparently disagree.

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Deborah Delise, an Assistant Secretary of Education, wrote that Zais’ proposed evaluations “reaffirm South Carolina’s commitment to improving academic achievement and the quality of instruction for all of the state’s elementary and secondary school students,” according to the AP.

The bad news is that the South Carolina state school board is siding with the education establishment. In December, members voted 11-3 on a resolution that criticized the superintendent’s plan because they said it did not provide “valid, reliable or meaningful data on teacher or principal performance,” the AP reports.

That’s certainly a harsh assessment, considering  the plan hasn’t  produced any results yet. The state is testing Zais’ evaluation plan in 22 schools this school year, and could expand it as a pilot program in 8 to 25 schools next year.

The catch is those schools would have to volunteer, and judging by the school board association’s hostility to the proposed system, volunteer districts may be hard to find.

“It is unclear what school districts are walking into if they participate,” Debbie Elmore, spokeswoman for the state school boards association, told the AP.

Elmore said her association is upset that the state and federal education departments “totally ignored the education community’s alternative plan.”

Hopefully state school board members will recognize the benefit of the increased accountability in Zais’ evaluation plan when results come back from this year’s trial run.

Board members would have to formally approve the plan before it could be implemented statewide in 2014, as planned.