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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 21, 2015 12:36 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Andrew E. Dinniman |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Teacher Professional Development |
| Teacher professional development has been compromised by actions of the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The Department is giving professional credits to teachers who are willing to correct project assessments of students who fail or opt out of the Keystone Exams. The way the Department is applying the current law makes it possible for a teacher to earn a significant part of their professional development credits correcting project assessments. The purpose of professional development is not to correct tests, it is, as the term implies, to help teachers improve their knowledge and teaching skills. I will soon introduce a bill that will disallow professional development credits for only correcting tests or evaluating projects. In the case of a project assessment evaluation that is related to the Keystone Exam, where teachers are both trained in the project assessment evaluation process and do evaluate these projects, professional development credit will be limited to a one-time credit earned for such training and correcting or evaluating the projects, or 30 hours of the 180 hours required by the School Code in a five-year compliance period with no ability to use or earn credits again in any other five-year compliance period. The integrity of the professional development process must be maintained. I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation. |
Introduced as SB835