Montgomery, Frederick schools continue to negotiate with state on teacher evaluations

Students’ standardized test scores will not be used to measure teacher effectiveness in Montgomery and Frederick counties for at least one more school year, although they will be used in the rest of the state.
Montgomery and Frederick counties’ public school systems — along with seven other local systems in Maryland — had been told to send the state a plan by Friday that outlined how, starting next school year, 20 percent of teachers’ evaluations would be based on students’ scores on state tests.
But now the state has decided to continue negotiating with Montgomery and Frederick counties for the next year regarding that requirement, and may decide that the systems do not need to comply with the same rules as the others, according to Bill Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education.
Reinhard originally wrote in an email Friday that Montgomery and Frederick still would be held accountable for meeting the 20 percent requirements by the 2014-15 school year. However, he said on Monday that that is not the case.
The other seven systems still were being held to the Friday deadline, Reinhard said.
The state now is reviewing whatever plans came in to see if they are compliant. If they aren’t, they will need to divert to a state model for evaluations next school year.

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