Background:

Teacher Certifications. Washington has two levels of certification for classroom teachers: residency and professional. To obtain a residency teacher certificate, applicants must complete an approved teacher preparation program and pass a basic skills test and a content knowledge tests. To obtain a professional teacher certificate, applicants must either: (1) have at least two years of experience and complete the ProTeach Portfolio, an external, uniform assessment adopted by Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB); or (2) have at least three years of experience and become certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (National Board). Teachers have up to seven years to obtain the professional certificate.

Certification from the National Board is a voluntary advanced teaching credential that is valid in Washington for 5 years. Washington offers a bonus of about $5,000 to eligible K-12 public school teachers who become certified by the National Board, and over 8,000 teachers in Washington have obtained this certificate.

Principal Certifications. Washington also has two levels of certification for principals (or building administrators). To obtain a residency principal certificate, applicants must complete an approved principal preparation program, have documented successful school-based experience in an instructional role with students, and hold, or have held, a valid residency or professional teacher certificate or educational staff associate certificate. To obtain a professional principal certificate, applicants must have documentation of three contracted school years of employment as a principal or assistant principal, complete an approved professional principal certificate program, and complete coursework in issues of abuse.

There is currently no national principal certificate.

Teacher and Principal Evaluation System. Legislation adopted in 2010 (i.e., Engrossed Second Substitute (ESSB) 6696, enacted as chapter 235, Laws of 2010) and in 2012 (i.e., ESSB 5895, enacted as chapter 35, Laws of 2012) required development and implementation of new classroom teacher and principal four-level rating evaluation systems with eight specified minimum criteria. The four-levels are unsatisfactory, basic, proficient, or distinguished. Teachers and principals receive a performance rating for each criteria and an overall rating for the entire evaluation, called the comprehensive summative evaluation performance rating. The 2015-16 school year was the first year that this evaluation system was in use statewide.

All teachers and principals must be evaluated each year. Every four years, the evaluation must be comprehensive and use all eight criteria. In the intervening years, evaluations are focused, zeroing in on a specific evaluation criterion for professional development. A teacher or principal may be transferred from a focused evaluation to a comprehensive summative evaluation at the request of the teacher or principal, or at the direction of the teacher's or principal's evaluator.

Annual comprehensive summative evaluations must be given in the following cases:

new teachers and principals in the first three years of employment;

new principals in the first year of employment, if previously employed as a principal by another district in Washington for three or more consecutive school years; and
teachers or principals receiving a level 1 or level 2 rating in the previous year.

Summary of Bill:

Classroom teachers with a Washington professional teacher certificate or a National Board Certificate, and principals with a Washington professional administrator certificate, who previously received a comprehensive summative evaluation performance rating of level 3 or above must receive a comprehensive summative evaluation less frequently than every four years. The frequency of evaluations for these educators must be according to the following schedule:

at least every six years, if the previous comprehensive summative evaluation performance rating was a level 3; and
at least every eight years, if the previous comprehensive summative evaluation performance rating was a level 4.

Technical changes are made.