ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Fifty-fifth Legislature

First Regular Session

HB 2403: schools; performance evaluations

Sponsor: Representative Udall, LD 25

Committee on Education

Overview

An emergency measure that exempts school districts and charter schools from conducting performance evaluations of teachers and principals for the 2020-2021 school year.

History

A school district governing board and charter school governing body must establish a system to evaluate the performance of teachers. The evaluation systems must result in at least one evaluation of each teacher by a qualified evaluator each school year and must:

1) Be designed to improve teacher performance and student achievement;

2) Include the use of quantitative data on the academic progress for all students, which accounts for between 20-33% of evaluation outcomes; and

3) Include the performance classifications of highly effective, effective, developing and ineffective (A.R.S. §§ 15-189.06, 15-537).

A school district governing board must adopt policies that describe performance improvement plans for teachers who are designated as ineffective as well as describe dismissal or nonrenewal procedures for teachers who continue to be rated as ineffective. These dismissal and nonrenewal procedures direct a school district to issue a preliminary notice of inadequacy of classroom performance no later than the second consecutive year that a teacher is designated in the developing or ineffective classifications (A.R.S. § 15-537).

In addition to teacher evaluation systems, a school district governing board and charter school governing body must establish policies to evaluate the performance of principals. These policies must:

1) Be designed to improve principal performance and student achievement;

2) Include the use of quantitative data on the academic progress for all students, which accounts for 20-33% of evaluation outcomes;

3) Include at least four performance classifications of highly effective, effective, developing and ineffective;

4) Describe the methods used to evaluate the performance of principals, including the data used to measure student performance and job effectiveness; and

5) Describe the formula used to determine evaluation outcomes (A.R.S. §§ 15-189.06, 15-341).

Each school district and charter school must allocate 40% of monies from the Classroom Site Fund for teacher compensation increases based on performance and employment related expenses. To receive these monies, a school district governing board must adopt a performance-based compensation system that, among other specified criteria, includes a regular evaluation for effectiveness of teachers. (A.R.S. § 15-977)

Provisions

1. Stipulates that a charter school governing body is not required to conduct teacher performance evaluations in the 2020-2021 school year. (Sec. 1)

2. Authorizes a school district governing board to forego performance evaluations of principals and certificated teachers in the 2020-2021 school year. (Sec. 1)

3. Prohibits a school district from using the absence of an evaluation in the 2020-2021 school year to enforce dismissal or nonrenewal procedures for a teacher who was designated in the lowest performance classification for the 2019-2020 school year. (Sec. 1)

4. States that a regular evaluation for effectiveness in the 2020-2021 school year is not required for a teacher to be eligible to receive performance pay from the Classroom Site Fund. (Sec. 1)

5. Repeals these exemptions on January 1, 2023. (Sec. 1)

6. Contains a retroactivity clause of July 1, 2020. (Sec. 2)

7. Contains an emergency clause. (Sec. 3)

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11. HB 2403

12. Initials CH Page 0 Education

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