On July 19, 2012, the U.S. Department of Education approved South Carolina Department of Education’s (SCDE) application for flexibility in fulfilling the requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). As a condition of this flexibility waiver, the SCDE was required to submit guidelines for a value-added teacher evaluation system that included student growth as a significant factor in determining teacher effectiveness.
In October 2012 Dr. Kathy Meeks, then Director of the Office of Educator Evaluation at the SCDE, requested input from the South Carolina Music Educators Association (SCMEA) regarding a means for measuring student growth in music. At the request of SCMEA President Dr. Christopher Selby, the SCMEA Task Force on Teacher Evaluation was formed and charged with outlining a proposal for evaluating music teacher effectiveness using student growth measures as well as crafting a position statement that would serve to inform teachers, administrators, and policy makers of recommended best practices in music teacher evaluation. Even though our original proposal was not adopted in its entirety by the SCDE, that document can be accessed here.
The South Carolina Department of Education has launched an advisory team of 25 teachers to assist the Department in implementing South Carolina’s Improved Educator Support and Evaluation System, which was recently approved (June 11, 2014) by the State Board of Education.
Our original SCMEA task force included the following individuals:
Michael W. Moore, task force chair | Department of Music Education, Bob Jones University
Donna Barrick, position statement subcommittee chair | Lyman Elementary School, Spartanburg District Five
Pam Sweer, student growth measures subcommittee chair | South Middle School, Lancanster County School Dist.
Gail V. Barnes | University of South Carolina
Mark Britt | Furman University
Christine Fisher | Winthrop University/ABC Project
Melanie Gladstone | SC School for the Deaf and Blind
Marsha Gross | Northwestern High School, Rock Hill School District Three
Scot Hockman | Arts Education Associate, SC Department of Education
Marianne Holland | North Greenville University
David Perry | Anderson University
Douglas Presley | Limestone College
Christopher R. Selby | Charleston School of the Arts, Charleston County School District
Sheneice Smith | Lower Richland High School, Richland School District One