Unsatisfactory Evaluations: Wyoming

Exiting Ineffective Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should articulate consequences for teachers with unsatisfactory evaluations, including specifying that teachers with multiple unsatisfactory evaluations should be eligible for dismissal.

Meets a small part of goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Unsatisfactory Evaluations: Wyoming results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/WY-Unsatisfactory-Evaluations-10

Analysis of Wyoming's policies

Wyoming requires each school district to provide a report at the end of each school year of all teachers who were identified as demonstrating inadequate or unsatisfactory performance. The report must also include any mentoring or professional development activities made available to teachers to help them improve.

Citation

Recommendations for Wyoming

Require that all teachers who receive unsatisfactory evaluations be placed on improvement plans.
While Wyoming requires districts to document mentoring and professional development provided to teachers identified as needing assistance, the state's policy does not clearly articulate that formal remediation plans will be utilized for teachers who receive unsatisfactory evaluations. The state should, therefore, clarify and expand its policy to require that teachers who receive even one unsatisfactory evaluation be placed on structured improvement plans. These plans should focus on performance areas that directly connect to student learning and should list noted deficiencies, define specific action steps necessary to address these deficiencies and describe how and when progress will be measured.

Make eligibility for dismissal a consequence of unsatisfactory evaluations.
Teachers who receive two consecutive unsatisfactory evaluations or have two unsatisfactory evaluations within five years should be formally eligible for dismissal, regardless of whether they have tenure. Wyoming should adopt a policy that ensures that teachers who receive such unsatisfactory evaluations are eligible for dismissal. 

State response to our analysis

Wyoming recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

Research rationale

To review the process and types of personnel evaluations observed in other job sectors, including the problems inherent to some evaluation systems see, for example, Gliddon, David (October 2004). Effective Performance Management Systems, Current Criticisms and New Ideas for Employee Evaluation in Performance Improvement 43(9), 27-36.