Teacher Evaluation Data Can Be Kept Private For One Year Judge Says

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A state judge has ruled teacher evaluation component data is exempt from public records laws until a year after the overall evaluation scores are released.

A circuit court judge has ruled that teacher evaluation data is exempt from public records laws for a year, denying the Florida Times-Union’s request seeking the information.

The paper was seeking three years of the component data used to calculate teacher evaluations gathered by the state. The Florida Department of Education initially said in January it would release the data before changing its mind a week later. From the Times-Union story:

Because the value-added data is developed from an average of three years, Cooper’s order would mean the public would have access only to value-added data that’s at least four years old.

The Times-Union had argued that because the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test data used to calculate value-added figures is public, and the value-added formula is public, the result created when the state crunches the data for teachers should not be exempt.

The paper says it plans to appeal the decision.