Nebraska

Nebraska is in the process of creating a teacher evaluation.  This is per a request from the legislature to the Nebraska Department of Education.  The legislature is allowing the Department of Education to take the time to do a pilot program and create something that will not only evaluate the teacher but do it within his or her particular content area.  They also do not want the evaluation to be too heavily weighted based upon student test scores, especially for those subjects that are not tested.

Several large systems, including the Lincoln, Omaha and Millard school districts, have already created their own teacher evaluations, mostly based on the Charlotte Danielson model. The state teacher evaluation would not be required for these districts because their evaluation has already been approved by the state.  This new evaluation would be for those districts that do not currently have a teacher evaluation, and even then, it would not be mandated as the state likes to maintain local control.