Board backtracks on effort to remove student growth goals from SD teacher evaluation requirements

A plan to remove an expectation of student growth from South Dakota’s rules governing teacher evaluation rules stalled Monday.

Student growth is one performance outcome among many used to track student achievement. It’s also part of the mix of factors used to measure teacher quality.

The South Dakota Board of Education Standards voted to rescind a previous decision to hold a public hearing on the effort to remove student growth from teacher evaluations. The rules will continue as they exist for now.

That’s primarily because state Department of Education Secretary Joseph Graves said some state Board of Education Standards members shared concerns after the group approved the department’s plan in May. He also expected the initiative to fail a legislative committee hearing required for th