Three Metro Detroit school districts are among 14 statewide that will be test laboratories for teacher evaluation tools this fall.

Garden City Public Schools, Farmington Public Schools and the Gibraltar School District have all agreed to participate in a pilot study by testing four national models for teacher evaluation.

The results of the study will help the Michigan Council on Educator Effectiveness make its final recommendations for an evaluation tool in Michigan.

"The MCEE takes seriously our charge to ensure the design of a fair, reliable, and feasible approach to educator evaluation in our state. This pilot is crucial to that work and to the future of Michigan's K-12 schools because it will allow us to learn about educator evaluation as it takes place in real school settings," said Deborah Loewenberg Ball, chairwoman of the council.

Each pilot district will use one of four teacher observation tools. Other states — including New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington and Colorado — have all used pilot programs and resulting feedback to adjust the systems.

The council was created in 2011 as part of Michigan's teacher tenure reform law. It must make recommendations to Michigan lawmakers in several areas, including a separate evaluation tool for administrators; a student growth and assessment tool; changes to the requirement for a professional teaching certificate, and a process for evaluating and approving local evaluation tools.

In a statement, a Royal Oak-based education think tank praised the pilot program.

"The development of a statewide teacher evaluation system is essential to getting hard-working Michigan teachers the feedback, training and support they deserve to improve their practice," said David Zeman, managing director of content and communication for the Education Trust-Midwest. "Michigan has never had an evaluation system that supports teachers in a consistent, cohesive way. Teachers deserve better and, most important, so do students."

Zeman continued: "This pilot program will ensure that the state's evaluation system is reliable and helpful to teachers and administrators. It will give the pilot districts an opportunity to utilize respected national evaluation tools, and give our teachers the benefit of true, meaningful evaluation and feedback."

jchambers@detnews.com

(313) 222-2269