Pennsylvania teachers must demonstrate a combination of classroom skills and student achievement if they want to make the grade on new statewide evaluations.
Lawmakers have overhauled teacher assessments for the first time in 40 years in order to help identify effective instructors and weed out bad ones.
The planned evaluations will rely on classroom observations and various measures of student performance, including test scores. They take effect in 2014.
A possible new observation procedure has already been getting trial runs in dozens of districts. Still, some educators have concerns about the still-unwritten final regulations.
The state Education Department is required to develop the rating tool by next June.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
