KP to Revise Teacher Evaluation Process

The King Philip School District will be re-examining its teacher-evaluation process, officials revealed this week.

Superintendent Elizabeth Zielinski spoke to the school committee about the topic at Monday's meeting.

Zielinski said the move was spurred by recent acts by the state legislature.

"All school districts, over the next three years, must redo their systems to come into compliance," she said. "Teacher evaluation is part of collective bargaining — as we enter into collective bargaining in October, it will have to be a part of that."

She said this is not the first time the district has looked at the issue.

"In 2004, a subcommittee explored evaluation," she said, sharing the subcommittee's findings with the committee. "What they came up with at the time was this evaluation process. When I came into the district, I saw this as absolutely, positively cutting edge."

According to Zielinski, the subcommittee's efforts shared many similarities with the newly enacted legislation. She said, though, that although the subcommittee's recommendations were ratified by the King Philip Teacher's Association, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education rejected it at the time.

"There was a lot of work done," she said. "We're not going to throw out the baby with the bathwater."

She said the differences between the subcommittee's recommendations and the legislation mainly centered around student assessment.

"It's not all about MCAS, but we need to make sure our children are growing," she said.