March 1, 2011

AFT Michigan Takes the Initiative on Teacher Evaluation and Due Process

AFT Michigan has always promoted fair and transparent efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the teaching workforce.

We believe that regular, thorough, and objective teacher evaluation is absolutely central to assessing teacher performance. Unfortunately, what passes for teacher evaluation in many Michigan school districts is too arbitrary and superficial to identify strengths and weaknesses and inform meaningful decisions.

To help remedy this problem, AFT Michigan has developed a Local Guide to Developing Effective Teacher Evaluation Systems to help school districts and local unions collaboratively develop evaluations that help promising teachers improve, good teachers become great, and identify those who should not be in the classroom at all.

In addition, our PreK-12 Teacher Committee has developed an Issue Brief on Evaluation and Due Process to provide a starting point for discussions with policymakers to ensure Michigan maintains the core principles of due process while addressing legitimate timeline concerns in the discipline process.

 

Local Guide to Developing Effective Teacher Evaluation Systems [.pdf 279k]

Issue Brief on Evaluation and Due Process [.pdf 291k]

Media Advisory: AFT Michigan Proposes New Directions on Teacher Evaluation and Tenure [.pdf 449k]

Pre K-12 Public Education Platform [.pdf 387k]