The second meeting of Southwest TURN, facilitated by Coordinators Bruce Dickinson and Ellen Bernstein, was held Oct 24, 2010, in order to piggyback on the national TURN meeting in San Antonio, TX. Twenty-five leaders representing fourteen locals in four states focused on teacher effectiveness and how best to respond to the push for the use of student achievement data in teacher evaluation.

The meeting was hosted by San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, and was the first time that most of the teacher-leaders in the room had had the opportunity to talk with peers in other states, and in some cases, even in other districts within their own states.

States/Locals represented: 

• Colorado - Boulder, Westminster, Aurora, Denver, Jeffco, Fort Collins (Poudre), Douglas Co., and Colorado Springs;
• New Mexico - Albuquerque;
• Nevada - Clark County (Las Vegas); and  
• Texas - Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Alief.

Ellen Bernstien, SW TURN Co-Director, facilitated a community-building session with local leaders sharing demographics of their locals/districts, local challenges, and current status of teacher evaluation (see SW TURN meeting archive).

Of primary concern was teacher evaluation and the use of student achievement data. Most of the districts have been or recently completed revising their evaluation system, but have not tackled the student performance questions with clarity. The student data conversation included discussions about multiple measures and limited discussion about value added measures (mostly dominated by the Colorado Growth Model).  There was real concern and many questions about requirements of SB 191 and how Colorado locals were dealing with these concepts, with many questions from other states, because they see this legislation coming toward them.  

SW TURN will meet again in late January or early February, possibly again following the national TURN meeting.  Travel costs are a major consideration for most of the locals represented; thus, growth of the network depends on finding additional funding.  The planning committee will consider webinars and other communication tools to facilitate, support, networking, and action-planning within and among the member locals.