State denies request to drop student surveys from Nashville evaluations

Nashville superintendent Jesse Register’s request to drop the scores of a student survey from teachers’ evaluations has been denied, according to the Tennessee Education Report.

Results from a student survey called TRIPOD count for 5 percent of the qualitative part of teachers’ evaluations in the current system. Last week, Register had asked the state to not use those surveys this year. He said while he supported the use of the TRIPOD, but the roll-out had been problematic because teachers had not had the chance to look at last year’s surveys.

The state department of education rejected the request on Friday. That means the results of two TRIPOD surveys averaged together will count for 5 percent for Nashville teachers this year.

Some teachers have criticized the surveys for being subjective, but other Tennessee school districts have used similar surveys for several years.

The Tennessee Education Report has Register’s full letter to teachers. The state department of education had not returned Chalkbeat’s request for comment.