A Florida middle school principal accidentally emailed her teachers’ evaluation scores to the entire school staff—value-added measures and all, according to the Florida Times-Union.
Principal Katrina McCray said she meant to attach a different file to the schoolwide email. (Ouch. Been there.) Upon realizing her mistake, she brought the faculty together and apologized.
The Duval County teachers’ union president is consulting attorneys on how to handle the situation, which she told the paper was upsetting to teachers. The superintendent responded to the union’s complaint quickly. “But upon my preliminary review the principal made an honest mistake and has thoroughly apologized for it,” he said.
It’s an unfortunate situation—and one someone will inevitably invoke as an argument (though a specious one) against using test scores to evaluate teachers. But to be fair, the mistake itself could have been made by a boss in any profession that evaluates employees.
Actually there is one big difference: According to the article, the teachers’ data would have become public record one year after the evaluation. So, in a sense, the principal’s only mistake made was releasing the scores early. Whether or not publicly releasing teachers’ scores is the wisest policy is another question ...