Roseville Union President Working on State-Wide Teacher Assessment

Dan Beck, the president of Roseville Area Schools’ teachers union and a social studies teacher at Roseville Middle School, wanted to join the state-wide work group on teacher accountability because he felt the state could learn from the way that Roseville assesses its instructors.

“I think the system we’ve created in Roseville is a strong tool for enhancing professional practice and professional development,” he told Roseville Patch. “We’re unique in that we’re one of two districts in the state that votes on a system by building for merit pay instead of by the entire district. That provides a lot of flexibility within the site to develop plans that are tailored to their specific building.”

The 30-member work group comprises teachers, parents, legislators, administrators and business people and met for the first time on Dec. 13. The group is charged with determining a standard method of assessing teachers for when individual districts cannot come up with an acceptable evaluation method, Beck said.

Tom Dooher, the president of Education Minnesota recommended Beck to serve on the work group. The work group stems out of legislation passed in 2011 that required the adoption of new guidelines for teacher and principal evaluation systems by the 2014-15 school year.

“I’m interested in seeing a system created that doesn’t come across as punitive or overly bureaucratic for teachers,” Beck said. “I see an over-reliance on testing.

"There’s a lot of areas where it’s very difficult to assess teacher performance based on test scores yet it’s often politically expedient to rely on test scores as an indicator of teacher performance," Beck said. "How do we come up with a valid system that enhances professional practice for teachers where testing isn’t a reliable indicator?”

Beck said the group is meeting monthly, and he anticipates it will convene for about a year.