The teacher evaluation process will be front and center as the State Board of Education meets in Boise this week. Thursday morning the State Board will hold its meeting at in the Simplot Ballroom at Boise State University, with a review of the 2015-16 teacher evaluations and the process by which those evaluations were obtained among the agenda items.
That afternoon the State Board will present their findings on teacher evaluations to a joint session of the education committees, starting at 3:00 PM in the Lincoln Auditorium at the capitol. This meeting is open to the public and can also be accessed online. IEA representatives will be in attendance and analyzing the State Board report closely. Teacher evaluations are tied to the Career Ladder, but reviews of the evaluation process thus far have been less than enlightening. This will be the first report on teacher evaluations since the State Board replaced the State Department of Education as the agency responsible for their oversight.
No Change in Idaho’s Post-Secondary Enrollment Numbers
State Board of Education President Emma Atchley told legislators Tuesday that the much-discussed “go-on “rate for Idaho students remained unchanged at 46% for 2015. The State Board has set a goal of 60% of Idaho’s young adults having some kind of post-secondary degree or certification by the year 2020, but has seen only incremental progress thus far. Atchley did say that the state’s direct admissions initiative is showing signs of effectiveness. That program fast tracks eligible seniors for admission into Idaho colleges and universities. Atchley attributed a 6.4% increase in state higher education attendance, at least in part, to the direct admissions initiative. Overall, the rate of graduating high school students going on to college remained flat, but there was an increase of 5.5% of those enrolling in Idaho colleges and universities.
Senate Education Committee Hearing for New State Board Member
The Senate Education Committee heard from the newest member of Idaho’s State Board of Education, Andrew Scoggin, on Tuesday. Scoggin is an Executive Vice President at Albertsons Companies, and has undergraduate and law degrees from BYU. He took questions from the committee, and some of his answers/statements included:
- “If we are going to have a great university system, we’d better make sure our students are prepared from day one.”
- “Let’s give those in the trenches, especially teachers, the support they need day in and day out.”
- “Teachers voices need to be heard. These are people who dedicate their entire lives to teaching.”
