REASSESSMENT OF TEACHERS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29024, 13 October 1959, Page 22

REASSESSMENT OF TEACHERS

Complications Over Uniformity

Keeping uniformity among the various districts in the ‘“reassessment” of teachers under the new appointment and promotion scheme has proved more complicated than at the transition period, according to the Education Department. When the scheme was introduced about three years ago, all teachers were assessed for the changeover from the old system of numerical grading. Now that teachers have the option of applying for assessment (which is arbitrary only every seven years) only about half have applied this year for new assessments for the second triennial period, which will begin next February. This work is now almost complete and in Canterbury and elsewhere inspectors are fully engaged writing up the reports. But the problem has been posed of how the reassessment of half the teaching force would affect the rest in relation to the goal of “reasonably uniform standards throughout the country.” Additional checks therefore had to be devised. The first was a return from each district of the present assessment (or grading) of those teachers who did not apply for reassessment. Their distribution was found to coincide fairly closely with the ratios for different levels agreed upon when the new scheme was introduced. From this it is being assumed that the distribution- of reassessments will also correspond fairly well.

Within any district the senior inspector is responsible- for uniformity among the reassessments made by his inspectors and, in addition to frequent crosschecks, there have been interdistrict checks. No single assessment of an individual teacher Is being altered by these crosschecks; but the ranking of a group at any one level may be slightly modified to preserve the national uniformity of groupings. Final assessment reports will be issued early in November.