’20-HB0038/SB0496 – Cepicky/Hensley

Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, for teachers in pre-kindergarten through grade two (pre-K-2), 60 percent of the evaluation criteria will be composed of classroom or position observation results. The remaining 40 percent of the evaluation criteria will be based on other measures of student achievement. This amendment makes the provisions described above in (3) applicable only to teachers in grades 3-12 and revises (5) above to instead allow, beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, LEAs to use at least one appropriate alternative growth mode that has been approved by the state board;
(B) Deletes the present law requirement (described above in (6)) that LEAs that receive program approval under the Voluntary Pre-K for Tennessee Act of 2005 must use the pre-K/kindergarten growth portfolio model. This amendment instead provides that pre-K and kindergarten teachers employed in an LEA that receives pre-K program approval under the Act must be evaluated according to this amendment's provisions, described above in (A); and
(C) Rewrites the present law prohibition on state-mandated tests earlier than grade (3) to instead provide that the state may not mandate any test, assessment, or evaluation of students in pre-K through grade 2 for purposes of measuring the performance, growth, or achievement of a teacher or student in pre-K through grade 2. This amendment further provides that the state may require a test, assessment, or evaluation necessary for compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to screen students for dyslexia, to assess English language learners, to implement RTI2, , or to assess the reading proficiency of students in pre-K through grade 2.