Pennsylvania's House of Representatives is signaling support for a plan to widen the scope of evaluations for teachers and principals across the state.
 
In a preliminary vote, the House voted 199-0 in favor of an amendment offered by the bill's sponsor, Representative Ryan Aument, a Republican from Lancaster County. Members of both parties spoke in favor of the bill. The bill would replace the present evaluation system, which is based entirely on in-school observations.
 
A new hybrid system would rely on those observations for only half of an educator's rating. The other half would be based on a variety of measures of student achievement, including standardized test scores and even school projects.
 
Governor Tom Corbett has targeted the overhaul of teacher evaluations as one of his top legislative priorities.