Governor signs teaching bill
By Tom Harshbarger
Daily Forty-Niner
The success of a program designed to raise
teacher retention rates is the basis for new legislation on teacher evaluation.
Signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis on Aug.
30 and authored by Assemblywoman Susan Davis, D-San Diego, the new law
recommends school districts to use the California Standards for the Teaching
Profession and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to evaluate
their teachers.
Implementation is optional, and teacher
unions must give their approval.
These standards are the basis for the Beginning
Teacher Support and Assessment program (BTSA), which has dramatically increased
the state's ability to retain K-12 teachers, said Ann Wood, a lecturer
in Cal State Long Beach's School of Teacher Education.
"Before BTSA, 50 percent of all teachers
in California would leave teaching before the end of their careers," Wood
said. "That number has since gone down to 10 percent."
BTSA provides first- and second-year teachers
with mentors, who give the new teachers survival skills. School districts
are not required to implement this program, but many use it.
The California Standards are divided into
six major areas such as engaging and supporting student learning, creating
and maintaining effective learning environments and assessing student learning.
They go on to describe what good or bad teaching looks like for each area.
"This bill provides the substance for (peer
evaluation)," Davis said in a press release. "It describes the reflective
process of matching teaching practice to model standards." |
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