New teacher evaluative process at Legislature: Should names and their ranking be public?

Today there was a hearing in the Senate Education Committee on SF 636. The emphasis of the bill is to modify teacher licensure, teacher evaluation, and performance.  In the bill there is privacy/public accountability issue.

Should teachers names be public and what their rating is per the evaluative process proposed in the bill?

It is not clear in the bill if the data would be public or private per current law. The debate should happen as the bill goes forward or else there can be misunderstanding with the intent of the legislature.

Recent events in New York City as to whether teacher names and their evaluative score should be public has gone to Court.  The issue has also been apart of discussion in other parts of the country.  Even a web site is taken comments from different perspectives on the issue.

There is a strong feeling for accountability and transparency in the K-12 system.  It is important to have a clear understanding of what data will be collected, who has access to it, and how it is reported or used.

Information is power and the responsibility of using the data should be a balanced approach.