Talk to us: should more districts use flex-year in teacher evaluations?

According to a Chalkbeat survey of the state’s 20 largest school systems, about half are taking advantage of flexibility in how they evaluate their teachers this year.

Colorado school districts were supposed to begin using the state’s evaluation system — based equally on professional practice and student data — in earnest this year. But due to an expected “data gap” between the state’s old and new testing system, the Colorado General Assembly provided districts one year to manage the evaluation system as they see fit.

Aurora Public Schools is one of the districts using the flexibility. Here’s why, according to Damon Smith, APS’s chief personnel officer:

“We believe there is still a great deal of work to do and learning to be accomplished before we introduce student achievement measures to the evaluation construct.”

On the other side of Denver, Jeffco Public Schools is moving forward with its use of data. Todd Engels, executive director of educator effectiveness, reasoned:

“We had all components for Senate Bill 191 in place last year. There are pieces we’re continuing to refine. [But] we need to have some consistency for evaluating our educators.”

So, this weeks question: If you were in charge of your school district, would you use the year of flexibility? If so, how would you use it? If not, why? 

Each Monday, we ask readers a question about a timely or timeless question about their experiences in education. Readers who want to share their opinions should leave a response in the comment section below, tweet us @ChalkbeatCO, send an email, or leave a comment on our Facebook wall. Every Friday we round up the responses. Here’s last week’s.