H. B. 3350
(By Delegate Spencer)
[Introduced March 25, 2005; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-2-12 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to deleting the requirement that
school personnel with five or more years of experience who
have not received an unsatisfactory rating receive
evaluations, except at the discretion of the principal;
making lesson plans the property of the teacher; and
prohibiting any requirement that teachers be required to
implement agendas or objectives prescribed by others.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-2-12 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. SCHOOL PERSONNEL.
§18A-2-12. Performance evaluations of school personnel;
professional personnel evaluation process.
(a) The State Board of Education shall adopt a written system for the evaluation of the employment performance of personnel,
which system shall be applied uniformly by county boards of
education in the evaluation of the employment performance of
personnel employed by the board.
(b) The system adopted by the State Board of Education for
evaluating the employment performance of professional personnel
shall be in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(c) For purposes of this section, "professional personnel,"
"professional" or "professionals," means professional personnel as
defined in section one, article one of this chapter.
(d) In developing the professional personnel performance
evaluation system, and amendments thereto, the State Board shall
consult with the Professional Development Project of the Center for
Professional Development created in section three, article three-a
of this chapter. The Center shall participate actively with the
State Board in developing written standards for evaluation which
clearly specify satisfactory performance and the criteria to be
used to determine whether the performance of each professional
meets such standards.
(e) The performance evaluation system shall contain, but shall
not be limited to, the following information:
(1) The professional personnel positions to be evaluated,
whether they be teachers, substitute teachers, administrators,
principals or others;
(2) The frequency and duration of the evaluations, which shall
be on a regular basis and of such frequency and duration as to
insure the collection of a sufficient amount of data from which
reliable conclusions and findings may be drawn:
Provided, That for
school personnel with five or more years of experience, who have
not received an unsatisfactory rating, evaluations shall be
conducted no more than once every three years unless the principal
determines an evaluation for a particular school employee is needed
more frequently:
Provided, however, That a classroom teacher may
exercise the option of being evaluated at more frequent intervals;
(3) The evaluation shall serve the following purposes:
(A) Serve as a basis for the improvement of the performance of
the personnel in their assigned duties;
(B) Provide an indicator of satisfactory performance for
individual professionals;
(C) Serve as documentation for a dismissal on the grounds of
unsatisfactory performance; and
(D) Serve as a basis for programs to increase the professional
growth and development of professional personnel;
(4) The standards for satisfactory performance for
professional personnel and the criteria to be used to determine
whether the performance of each professional meets such standards
and other criteria for evaluation for each professional position
evaluated. Effective the first day of July, two thousand three and thereafter, professional personnel, as appropriate, shall
demonstrate competency in the knowledge and implementation of the
technology standards adopted by the State Board. If a professional
fails to demonstrate competency, in the knowledge and
implementation of these standards, he or she will be subject to an
improvement plan to correct the deficiencies; and
(5) Provisions for a written improvement plan, which shall be
specific as to what improvements, if any, are needed in the
performance of the professional and shall clearly set forth
recommendations for improvements, including recommendations for
additional education and training during the professional's
recertification process.
(f) A professional whose performance is considered to be
unsatisfactory shall be given notice of deficiencies. A
remediation plan to correct deficiencies shall be developed by the
employing county board of education and the professional. The
professional shall be given a reasonable period of time for
remediation of the deficiencies and shall receive a statement of
the resources and assistance available for the purposes of
correcting the deficiencies.
(g) No person may evaluate professional personnel for the
purposes of this section unless the person has an administrative
certificate issued by the State Superintendent and has successfully
completed education and training in evaluation skills through the center for professional development, or equivalent education
training approved by the State Board, which will enable the person
to make fair, professional, and credible evaluations of the
personnel whom the person is responsible for evaluating.
After the
first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, No person
may be issued an administrative certificate or have an
administrative certificate renewed unless the State Board
determines that the person has successfully completed education and
training in evaluation skills through the Center for Professional
Development, or equivalent education and training approved by the
State Board.
(h) Any professional whose performance evaluation includes a
written improvement plan shall be given an opportunity to improve
his or her performance through the implementation of the plan. If
the next performance evaluation shows that the professional is now
performing satisfactorily, no further action may be taken
concerning the original performance evaluation. If the evaluation
shows that the professional is still not performing satisfactorily,
the evaluator either shall make additional recommendations for
improvement or may recommend the dismissal of the professional in
accordance with the provisions of section eight of this article.
(i) Lesson plans are
the property of the teacher and are
intended to serve as a daily guide for
teachers the teacher and
his
or her substitutes substitute for the orderly presentation of the curriculum. Lesson plans may not be used as a substitute for
observations by an administrator in the performance evaluation
process. A classroom teacher, as defined in section one, article
one of this chapter, may not be required to post his or her lesson
plans,
or any part thereof on the internet or otherwise make them
available to students and parents or to include in his or her
lesson plans any of the following:
(1) Teach and reteach strategies;
(2) Write to learn activities;
(3) Cultural diversity;
(4) Color coding; or
(5) Any other similar items which
the teacher does not find
necessary are not required to serve as a guide
to the teacher or
substitute for daily instruction; and
(j) The Legislature finds that classroom teachers must be free
of unnecessary paper work so that they can focus their time on
instruction. Therefore, classroom teachers may not be required to
keep records or logs of routine contacts with parents or guardians,
write agendas, essential questions, objectives, or other items the
classroom teacher finds unnecessary. Administrators may not be
required to sign lesson plan books of tenured employees, who are
not on a plan of improvement nor evaluate extra-curricular coaching
positions on a yearly basis.
(k) Nothing in this section
may be construed to prohibit prohibits classroom teachers from voluntarily posting material on
the internet.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
delete the requirement
that school personnel with five or more years of experience, who
have not received an unsatisfactory rating, receive evaluations,
except at the discretion of the principal. The bill also would
make teacher's lesson plans the property of individual teachers
while prohibiting any requirement that teachers be required to
implement agendas or objectives prescribed by school
administrators.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.