Grading state practices . . .

I found this report  on the National Council on Teacher Policy and decided to share it because some of the grades are directly related to evaluation and waiver bills currently being discussed in Olympia.  The study gives states a letter grade on the laws, rules, and regulations that influence the quality of teaching in the state.  The chart below shows areas analyzed in the study and how our state changed from 2011 to 2013.  In both those years Washington received a C- and in 2009 it was a D+ so there has been some positive movement in these areas according to this analysis.

The map below shows that we are somewhere in the middle when compared to other states.

My sense is that the proposed changes in teacher evaluation and waiver language reflected in some of the current bills being discussed in Olympia will increase the grade.  The chart below identifies "weaknesses" in Area 3 that the bills are intended to fix such as use of student achievement data in evaluations.  I don't know how widely distributed this report is or how much influence they have on state and federal policy decisions, but I do know that it could be another source of leverage fr reformers in our state and at the national level.