Education reform dominated the discussion at a town hall meeting today hosted by state lawmakers on Purdue’s campus.
BeAnn Younker, principal of Battle Ground Middle School, asked what might be included in legislation calling for more teacher accountability.
“If it’s not done well the whole system will fold, quite honestly,” Younker said.
For about half of the two-hour discussion, educators asked questions and made a case for certain changes to state Reps. Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, Randy Truitt, R-West Lafayette, and Sheila Klinker, D-Lafayette. Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, also attended the start of the meeting.
Bosma, the speaker of the House, said it’s important to change state law to allow test scores, such as the ISTEP, be taken into account when evaluating teacher performance. But he and Younker agreed that those scores should only be one piece of the larger accountability picture.
“It’s unfortunate that part of the debate (on school reform) is focused on bad teachers are failing the public schools,” Bosma said. “We have some bad teachers and we have some failing schools” but it’s not all of them.
Bosma said it’s going to be a difficult year at the Statehouse as lawmakers try to craft the 2011 budget using the same revenue that Indiana collected in 2005.
“Most of us have pledged to do that without raising taxes,” he added.
For more on this story, read Saturday’s Journal & Courier.
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Tags: accountability, battle-ground, craft-the-2011, educators-asked, failing-schools, house, speaker, statehouse, younker