Rep. Henne Introduces Changes to OTES

State Representative Mike Henne (R-Clayton) today introduced House Bill 631, legislation that seeks to make various changes to the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) in regards to the Ohio Resident Educator Program and public records for educators.

Under House Bill 631, in order to avoid duplication of testing, new teachers involved in the Ohio Resident Educator program will not be required to participate in OTES evaluations until after they have completed three to four years of residency. Additionally, this legislation specifies that OTES evaluations will not be subject to public records requests, in order to ensure privacy and to safeguard teachers from unwanted exposure

OTES was created to provide a framework in which teachers could be evaluated annually. Performance levels are rated as accomplished, skilled, developing or ineffective. OTES was recently revised earlier this year in House Bill 362 to permit teachers rated as accomplished or skilled to be evaluated less frequently than every year.