Texas judge blocks Houston district's plan for new teacher evaluation system
A Texas judge has issued a temporary restraining order to halt the Houston school district's overhaul of how it evaluates its teachers.
KTRK-TV reports that the restraining order stems from a lawsuit that the Houston Federation of Teachers filed against the school board and state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles.
The teachers union contends that Miles and the board violated Texas Education Code requirements when they developed teacher evaluations.
The union says the district failed to get input from teachers and other stakeholders during the process. According to the lawsuit, the district didn't include the schools' Shared Decision Making Committees, thus violating state code.
The union says that the district spent two years working with teachers on an appraisal system called the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS), which is used in the rest of the state. But the lawsuit asserts that Miles and the board scrapped the T-TESS system in favor of a new local appraisal system known as Policy DNA.
"The hollowed-out version of DNA approved by the board of managers does not contain any performance criteria, and it is unknown what the criteria will be for evaluating a teacher's performance," the suit contends.
The Texas Education Agency appointed Miles superintendent in Houston earlier this year after it seized control of the school system, the largest in Texas.
