ISU’s Center for the Study of Education Policy will partner with the Consortium for Education Change (CEC) in a Train the Trainer program called “Growth Through Learning.”

The Center will assist approximately 9,000 principal and teacher evaluators through the 18-month training process beginning this May.

“The Growth Through Learning program is a new initiative funded by the Illinois State Board of Education in response to new teacher and principal performance evaluation requirements for the Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA) of 2010,” Erika Hunt, research associate in the Center for the Study of Education Policy, said.

“The goal of the Growth Through Learning training program is to help districts ensure there is an outstanding teacher in every classroom and an outstanding principal in every school,” she added.

As stated on the website growththroughlearningillinois.org, PERA requires all Illinois districts to implement a standards-based principal evaluation system with student achievement indicators by 2012 and teacher evaluation systems with student achievement indicators by 2016.

The biggest difference between this new system and current systems is student achievement will become a significant factor in every evaluation.  Districts and evaluators will need to select measures of student growth.

“ISU’s Center is assisting with the statewide training by providing the content of the website, providing communication and support to districts as they implement the new evaluation models, and providing support for a statewide advisory committee that will review and provide input on the training program,” Hunt said.

Based on the administrative rules for PERA, this training program is required for anyone who is responsible for the evaluation of teachers or principals.

Hunt said well-designed teacher and principal evaluations can accurately measure how well teachers and principals are doing, identify their strengths and areas for growth, and align areas of growth to professional development and support.

“We anticipate we will need to train approximately 9,000 educators on this system by September 1, 2012,” Hunt said.

The CEC has also partnered with DuPage Regional Office of Education, Teachscape, The Danielson Group, and the Value Added Research Center at University of Wisconsin.

For more information on the Growth Through Learning training program, visit www.growththroughlearningillinois.org or contact Erika Hunt at (309) 438-2725.