During public testimony at the May 12, 2011, meeting of the Colorado State Board of Education, senior policy analyst Ben DeGrow shared some preliminary insights concerning the implementation of educator effectiveness legislation (SB 191). Ed News Colorado’s Todd Engdahl highlighted one of the key points he made:

Ben DeGrow of the Independence Institute said it’s “imperative” that districts with good existing evaluation systems “not be bound by mandates or unduly limited.”

Districts “already meeting or exceeding requirements” include most notably Harrison School District 2 in Colorado Springs. DeGrow further offered three major points of concern in his public testimony:

1. The state’s model teacher and principal evaluation system available to school districts should contain more clear and concrete details “by which sound and consistent evaluation judgments can be made”;
2. The state board needs to clarify that consequences for effective and ineffective teaching must be counted during the 2013-14 rollout school year, per the requirements of SB 191; and
3. While the State Council on Educator Effectiveness issued recommendations for changes to several areas of teacher policy, an important area overlooked was compensation reform rooted in the groundwork of SB 191 [Co-chair Nina Lopez later acknowledged that the Council would address this issue in the near future].

The Independence Institute’s Education Policy Center will continue to offer input as the important SB 191 implementation process moves forward.