A bill that would change how teachers and principals are evaluated passed the Senate Wednesday. Senate Bill 5478 would require that state tests be used in evaluating teachers’ and principals’ overall performance. In current law, state tests may be used but are not required to be used in the evaluations. The bill now heads to the House.

State Superintendent Randy Dorn proposed a similar bill in 2014, when Washington became the first state to lose a waiver from some of the provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law. Federal officials at the time revoked the waiver because Washington didn’t require state tests to be used in evaluations.

“I applaud the Senate’s vote on this bill,” said Randy Dorn, superintendent of public instruction. “How students do on state tests should be one measure of a teacher’s and a principal’s evaluation. I think the evaluation should have many measures, but this is one. And it should be state tests. The quality of school and district tests varies so much that we can’t learn a lot from them.

“Second, this will help us regain our waiver from the No Child Left Behind law. Having to follow Adequate Yearly Progress meant that schools lost control of how to spend $40 million a year. And having to go through the process each year was a burden to school officials.”