By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org
    
NIXA, Mo. – Missouri public school officials are celebrating over the defeat of a bill that would have forced them to evaluate all teachers every year, with a third of the review based on student growth on state standardized tests.
    
State Rep. Kevin Elmer proposed House Bill 631 because “our best isn’t as good as we can do,” he said during debate in the House this week.
    
“I proposed this bill for that reason,” he said, according to the News-Leader. “I made every effort we can to ensure that evaluation systems are put forward by our local school districts and that … our children and what it is that they’re being taught … is first and primary above all else in our education system.”
    
Elmer’s attempt to put students first was shot down by a vote of 102-55.
    
Nixa schools superintendent Stephen Kleinsmith, the head of schools in Elmer’s district, framed the bill as an issue of local control and did his best to shoot it down, the news site reports.
    
“Point blank, it’s putting a black eye on Nixa (and) that’s why we’re so passionate about defending local control,” Kleinsmith said. “Since when do legislators have the knowledge, first of all, or the right, second of all, to get in and do a school board member’s job? I don’t think they do.”
    
Kleinsmith runs a school district that’s won numerous awards for educational achievement. But not every Missouri school district has responsible school officials who put students first. Not every Missouri school district has rigorous teacher evaluations.
    
But every child in Missouri deserves a quality education, and we believe that grading teachers based – in part – on how well their students are performing is critical to ensuring that all children are taught by an effective educator.
    
Just because education officials don’t like Elmer’s proposal doesn’t mean the public agrees. Elmer pointed the News-Leader to a poll by StudentsFirst that shows 79 percent of Missouri residents are behind annual teacher evaluations.
    
“The only ones that I heard anything negative from are the ones in the education system,” Elmer said. “It is really the minority that’s the loudest.”
    
Unfortunately, the blowback from school officials was enough to convince lawmakers to reject  performance-based evaluations, which means the bill won’t be up for a vote again this legislative session.
    
Elmer told the News-Leader he will look to insert the language of his bill as an amendment to another education bill.
    
“I think the bill as a whole is worth fighting for,” he said.