Sen. Alexander, R.-Tenn., right, said Washington overreach on teacher evaluation has made “a hard thing even harder” at a hearing on Tuesday. (Preston R. Michelson/MNS)
WASHINGTON — Sen. Lamar Alexander on Tuesday called for a system of state evaluation for teachers, instead of the current federal legislation.
At the second Senate hearing this year about the “No Child Left Behind” law, Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said states and local districts know better than the federal government how to evaluate teachers.
“Washington will get the best long-term result by creating an environment in which states and communities are encouraged, not ordered, to evaluate teachers,” Alexander said.
“No Child Left Behind,” a comprehensive education bill that seeks to measure the education of students, was signed into law in 2002. It has been up for reauthorization since 2007 and Alexander is trying to get this bill to the Senate floor by late February.
“The federal government, in its well-intentioned way, trying to say, ‘we want better teachers, and we’re going to tell you exactly how to do it, and you must do it now,” has created enormous backlash,” Alexander said. “It’s made even harder something that was already hard.”
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the ranking member of the committee, called for a bipartisan approach to the act.
“Democrats and Republicans should be able to work together on something as important as making sure students have great teachers — and can access high-quality education, no matter where they live, how they learn, or how much money their parents make,” she said.
The hands-off approach to the draft of the bill was not met with unanimous approval.
“This Republican draft proposal doesn’t do a single thing to make sure the states actually spend their money to make sure the teachers do their jobs,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, who has called for increased state accountability at the last two hearings.
The discussion draft, which was released two weeks ago, enables states to receive more than $2.5 billion to develop, implement or improve teacher evaluation systems.
Another potential change in “No Child Left Behind” focuses on annual testing, which critics say is too burdensome on students and educators.
“A move away from a requirement of uniform statewide annual year-over-year testing would greatly shrink and possibly even eliminate our knowledge of educator effectiveness,” said Dan Goldhaber, a witness at the hearing and the director of the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington.
The U.S. Department of Education has given 43 waivers to states to develop alternative plans of educational evaluation. Instead, the department gives alternate guidelines that the states have to follow.
California, Iowa and Washington had waiver requests denied or revoked over the issue of teacher evaluations.
“Whether or not this federal interference with state education law offends your sense of federalism, like it does mine, it has proved impractical,” Alexander said.
