Delaware will factor student test scores into teacher ratings

Delaware will join New Jersey in the states that use student test scores to help evaluate teachers.

Test scores will be one of five components used to rate teachers, but low scores won’t negatively effect a teacher, the News Journal reports. Instead, teachers whose students score well and who do well in the other four components will be rewarded. Those teachers will be eligible for bonuses and other incentives paid for with money from the Race to the Top grant.
Teachers of subjects like music and auto shop, which are untested, the state will instead use school-wide scores for the evaluations.

The plan is part of a one-year deal as the state works to overhaul the teacher rating system.