Arizona Education Association

Winter 2013

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ACCOUNTABILITY Teacher Evaluation Concerns, cont. from page 13 1. Confer with the teacher to make specific recommendations about areas of improvement; 2. Provide professional development opportunities for the teacher to improve performance; and 3. Follow up after a reasonable period to ascertain whether the teacher is demonstrating adequate performance. What should teachers do if they receive an inaccurate evaluation? Teachers can and should write a response or rebuttal to an inaccurate evaluation. The response should be concise, factual, wellwritten, and free from emotional content to disprove the conclusions drawn in the evaluation. An AEA member should ask their local association, aeahelpdesk.org, or an AEA Organizational Consultant to review the rebuttal before it is submitted, as they often have additional suggestions and materials to help teachers respond to unfavorable or inaccurate evaluations. In most districts, teachers may grieve errors in the evaluation's procedure but cannot grieve or appeal the evaluation's substance, unless there is a district policy saying otherwise. However, teachers can appeal an evaluation if it is used to determine career ladder compensation, other performance-based pay, or to deny a salary step. Teachers should check their district's policies or contact their local association, aeahelpdesk.org, or an AEA Organizational Consultant and review district policies to determine their rights to appeal or grieve an evaluation. If the evaluation is vague or difficult to understand, a teacher should ask the qualified evaluator for clarification and request the specific criteria that will be used to measure satisfactory performance. How can teachers be fired for inadequate performance? A district must observe the teacher for at least one uninterrupted lesson. If the performance meets the district's definition of inadequacy, the governing board or its representative must give the teacher a written preliminary notice of inadequacy of classroom performance (PNICP). Winter.13advo.indd 14 14 Winter 2013/14 x AEA Advocate The PNICP must specify the nature of the inadequacies with such particularity so that the teacher has an opportunity to correct the deficiencies and "maintain adequate classroom performance." When the district issues the PNICP, the district must also provide the teacher with a 45-instructional day performance improvement plan that was designed to help the teacher correct inadequacies and demonstrate adequate classroom performance. At the conclusion of the plan, the district must again observe the teacher for at least one complete and uninterrupted lesson. If after that observation the performance is still inadequate, then the district can do one of the following: 1. Issue a Notice of Nonrenewal of contract to a probationary teacher for the following school year. a. In this case, probationary teachers who receive a nonrenewal notice will have jobs until the end of the school year, but will not receive contracts for the following school year. The governing board must vote to issue the nonrenewal notices, which must be personally delivered to the teacher or sent by registered or certified mail. b. Probationary teachers do not have the right to a hearing to object to a nonrenewal. 2. Issue a Notice of Dismissal to a continuing status or probationary teacher. a.In these cases, if, after the improvement period, the teacher fails to "demonstrate adequate classroom performance," then the superintendent can present to the governing board a statement of charges alleging inadequacy of classroom performance. The governing board votes on whether to issue a notice of intent to dismiss at the expiration of 10 days after the notice is served on the teacher. The teacher may appeal and request a hearing within the 10-day period after being served the notice. b.For probationary teachers, districts usually issue notices of nonrenewal for the next year, but if the district issues a mid-year dismissal to a probationary Continued on page 24 11/4/13 3:23 PM

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