We are both thankful and well served by the fact that most
school boards show great wisdom in regard to this issue; however, with the
advent of the collection of discreet student performance data for each teacher
we wish to make it clear that this information should not be distributed for
public consumption.
One thing that we are discovering from states that are ahead of
Virginia in the development of teacher specific data is that news outlets will
request this data, and in Los Angeles, for example, this data is
published. We know that the data is
volatile and this year’s top teacher may be next year’s low performer. Assignment of students has never been random
and it never will be.
If a teacher is a consistent underperformer, the division should
address this issue. However, no teacher
deserves to wake up and read in the morning paper that they are the worst
teacher in their grade at their school.
In one widely reported instance this rude awakening led to the suicide
of a very promising young teacher.
I applaud Virginia’s school divisions for showing wise discretion in regard to this issue; however, the purpose of HB 1889 is to make it clear that this data should not be released.
We thank Delegate Jim LeMunyon for championing this bill.
