Sen. Pinsky is the committee chairman, and he's a taechers union organizer, yet nobody sees a conflict of interest here? The unions give the apperance of opposing any attempt to increase accountability, his committe shoots down one of the bulwarks of the race to the top award, and nobody questions this guys motives? We're supposed to blindly accept his reasoning that a 50%, of which only about 20% would be test scores, does not comply with the law that states student acievement is to be a "significant" part of teacher evaluations. This doesn't pass the smell test, at all.

I would need to see the actual proposal to know where I would stand. In the school district where I work the students are very transient...this would make it very difficult to determine which teacher is affiliated with which student. Also, what about special education teachers? Those who teach students with the most significant disabilities would be "handicapped" in regards to student achievement. I am not for or against this specific plan as I have not read it. I just don't know how an equitable plan can be written. People (in this case students) all have differing abilities. Student growth would be a better model, rather than student achievement in my opinion...and still the special education student with a degenerative illness will not make growth. Also, I will look up who was on the Race to the Top application.....was there representation from various stakeholders? When looking at the legislative vote there were quite a few against and only a few for.

The legislative committee that voted down the proposed 50% evaluation of a teacher's effectiveness based on student achievement was absolutely right. Why is there this rush to throw together something to judge a teacher based on student achievement without thinking through the entire evaluation process and letting teachers know exactly how they would be evaluated? It's all about the money. It always is with Gov. O'Malley. He'll do anything for that $250 million and that includes throwing every teacher in the state under the bus if need be. He has as much as said so in the Sun's article. Teachers aren't afraid of being evaluated. I'm a teacher and I'm definitely not concerned at all. I welcome a fair evaluation system. I just want to know the answer, just like every other teacher, to a few questions. How the system would work? How would I be able to earn a bonus for all the effort and caring that I bring to the classroom each day? How will teachers be evaluated who teach students who won't learn, who won't show up, who have parents who don't care, who don't need a class that is not required, who are disruptive, who are stuck with the lowest performing students when other teachers get nothing but the cream of the crop. There are so many questions about fairness that must be addressed before a fair system can be formulated. But none of that seems to matter to those who are pushing this 50% performance standard through with all speed. The RTTP money is the carrot dangling in front of O'Malley and Nancy Grasmick who are dashing full speed to grab it no matter what and to reach it they'll trample anyone in their path.