In a new report, an education reform advocacy group said Indiana is making progress on teacher preparation measures but still has room for improvement elsewhere.
The National Council on Teacher Quality released its fourth annual State Teacher Policy Yearbook on Thursday. The yearbooks examine changes to state laws that align with the group's goal of ensuring that all children have effective teachers. The council is funded by several foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Indiana, which was given a D by the group last year, is improving in three areas.
Under new Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability, teacher candidates must pass a basic skills test prior to admission to a new teacher preparation program; secondary teacher candidates must now major in a content area and minor in education; and elementary teacher candidates must now have a major or minor in a content area as well as a major or minor in education.
Those changes took effect last summer after a state advisory board and Gov. Mitch Daniels approved them.
The report recommended that the state take action in other areas that could improve teacher effectiveness, including linking tenure decisions to teacher effectiveness, creating an evaluation system, and preventing ineffective teachers from staying in the classroom indefinitely.
Daniels and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett want to enshrine several of the group's suggestions into law in this spring's legislative session. Bennett is on the council's technical panel, which is examining education across the country.
Daniels, who spoke with the Post-Tribune editorial board on Thursday, stressed the importance of "genuine" assessments to determine how kids were learning and improving their performance.
He said tools should measure a child's performance throughout the school year rather than relying on one test score.
Department of Education spokeswoman Lauren Auld said Senate Bill 1, if passed, would change several aspects of the tenure and evaluation system.
"The proposal includes language talking about hiring and firing," Auld said. "The teacher evaluation rubric would be established and districts would create their own evaluations.
"It would rid schools of a salary schedule; instead it would be more of a scale, which wouldn't affect current teachers. The new salary schedule would be based on evaluations, leadership positions held and the academic needs of the students."
The bill will have a hearing before the Senate Education and Career Development committee at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.