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<h1>Tennessee Teachers Score in Fight for Fair Evaluations</h1>

<div><div><div><p></p>  <p>On April 24, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a bill rolling back an evaluation system that used students' scores on standardized tests to judge     teacher success.</p>  <p>Spurred by a lawsuit that the Tennessee Education Association, a teachers&rsquo; union, filed against the governor and the state education commissioner, the bill     addresses the union's concern over what it called "arbitrary and irrational" evaluation methods.</p>  <p>The evaluations use a statistical tool known as TVAAS to calculate the impact teachers have on their students' academic performance. TVAAS uses data from state standardized tests in a "value-added" system to rank teachers.</p>  <blockquote>The goal is not to do away with teacher evaluations but to improve     them.</blockquote>  <p>The lawsuit that spurred last week's development began when 8th grade teacher Mark Taylor didn't get a bonus.</p>  <p>It takes some stones to sue the governor over     bonus money&mdash;but the union saw a larger problem in Taylor's situation. In a <a href="http://www.teateachers.org/news/tea-files-second-tvaas-lawsuit-gov-and-commissioner-named-defendants">press release</a> detailing the lawsuit, the union wrote that Taylor's bonus was denied even though the     observation component of his evaluation showed that he was exceeding expectations.</p>  <p>Because Mr. Taylor taught several advanced classes that did not culminate in a state standardized test, his TVAAS score was calculated based only on the 22     students in the regular science class he teaches&mdash;that's less than 16 percent of his total students.</p>  <p>In other words, Taylor received a bad score on his evaluation due to calculations that reflected only a small part of his work.</p>  <p>But the deeper concern went far beyond teachers' bonuses. Under the state's previous education statutes, the department of education had the     authority to revoke a teacher's license based on their TVAAS score.</p>  <p>Carolyn Crowder, executive director of Tennessee Education Association, explained that the group's goal is not to do away with teacher evaluations but to improve     them.</p>  <p>"TEA is not against accountability," she said, "but evaluations should be fair and clear."</p>  <hr style="width: 50%;" width="50%"><ul><li>  </li><li>  </li><li>  </li></ul><p><span style="height: 22px;"><br></span></p></div><!-- <img src="295bba9f455649eba5d90043e46b77df"> --></div><!-- <p><img src="2edd531e0b58415eb95bd9c5c16ab11f">Molly Rusk wrote this article for <a href="http://dev-wp.yesmagazine.org/" style="height: 22px; width: 0px !important;">YES! Magazine</a><span style="height: 22px;">, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Molly is a recent graduate of the program in Creative Writing at the University of Washington and an online reporting intern at YES! Follow her on Twitter @mollylynnrusk.</span></p> --></div><!-- <p><b><span style="height: 22px;">Read More</span></b></p>&#13;  --><!-- <a href="resolveuid/dd9ff7c08c30491e8c3cd427745eea1c"><b><span style="height: 22px;">When This Teacher&#8217;s Ethnic Studies Classes Were Banned, His Students Took the District to Court&#8212;and Won</span></b></a> --><!-- <a href="resolveuid/c7d251d67da54a258abfe96c3b65af65"><b><span style="height: 22px;">Protecting Classrooms From Corporate Takeover: What Families Can Learn from Teachers&#8217; Unions</span></b></a> --><!-- <a href="resolveuid/7a0617d7861e47ba94dcbc54c0357e9b"><b><span style="height: 22px;">Stephen Colbert: New Standardized Tests Teach Valuable Lessons in Stress and Confusion</span></b></a> -->

<p>This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org">Yes! Magazine</a> at <a href="https://dev-wp.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2014/05/02/tennessee-teachers-score-in-fight-for-fair-evaluations">https://dev-wp.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2014/05/02/tennessee-teachers-score-in-fight-for-fair-evaluations</a>.</p><link href="https://dev-wp.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2014/05/02/tennessee-teachers-score-in-fight-for-fair-evaluations" rel="canonical"/><p>Yes! Magazine is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of ... . Learn more at <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org">Yes! Magazine</a></p><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://dev-wp.yesmagazine.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=12192&ga4=G-74QJNNY44Z" style="width:1px;height:1px;">

Tennessee Teachers Score in Fight for Fair Evaluations

On April 24, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a bill rolling back an evaluation system that used students' scores on standardized tests to judge     teacher success.  Spurred by a lawsuit that the Tennessee Education Association, a teachers’ union, filed against the governor and the state education commissioner, the bill     addresses the union's concern over what it called "arbitrary and irrational" evaluation methods.  The evaluations use a statistical tool known as TVAAS to calculate the impact teachers have on their students' academic performance. TVAAS uses data from state standardized tests in a "value-added" system to rank teachers.  The goal is not to do away with teacher evaluations but to improve     them.  The lawsuit that spurred last week's development began when 8th grade teacher Mark Taylor didn't get a bonus.  It takes some stones to sue the governor over     bonus money—but the union saw a larger problem in Taylor's situation. In a press release detailing the lawsuit, the union wrote that Taylor's bonus was denied even though the     observation component of his evaluation showed that he was exceeding expectations.  Because Mr. Taylor taught several advanced classes that did not culminate in a state standardized test, his TVAAS score was calculated based only on the 22     students in the regular science class he teaches—that's less than 16 percent of his total students.  In other words, Taylor received a bad score on his evaluation due to calculations that reflected only a small part of his work.  But the deeper concern went far beyond teachers' bonuses. Under the state's previous education statutes, the department of education had the     authority to revoke a teacher's license based on their TVAAS score.  Carolyn Crowder, executive director of Tennessee Education Association, explained that the group's goal is not to do away with teacher evaluations but to improve     them.  "TEA is not against accountability," she said, "but evaluations should be fair and clear."