LEWISTON — The School Department will be the first in Maine to launch teacher evaluations based on national standards, Superintendent Bill Webster said Tuesday.

The School Committee on Monday night unanimously approved the move.

By this time next year, each of Lewiston’s 400 teachers will have had multiple evaluations on how they teach, Webster said. The focus is to identify professional development and training to help teachers improve.

“This is not a tool to be used in reductions in force or to get rid of teachers,” Webster said. “We need to change the culture in our schools — not just Lewiston, but everywhere.”

Past evaluations looked at what teachers were doing. This evaluation will examine whether teaching is effective and students learned, he said.

“(In time), this will have a dramatic improvement in what’s happening in the classroom,” Webster said. Test scores, which have been below state averages, ultimately will improve, he predicted.

“Overall, it’s about student achievement,” said School Committee member Paul St. Pierre. “This offers great opportunities for teachers in Lewiston.”

Maine Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen visited Farwell Elementary School on June 7 to observe Lewiston’s pilot evaluation program. Bowen said it could become a strong model for the state, St. Pierre said. Lewiston is ahead of the curve, St. Pierre said. “It’s a wow.”

The School Department’s program will be built and tweaked by Lewiston teachers and administrators based on 17 national teacher certification standards that are research-based. “We think we have a very good tool,” Webster said. “It will only get better as we refine it.”

The evaluation will root out bad, ineffective teachers. Teachers deemed ineffective will have two years to improve, and in those two years they’ll have resources to help them, Webster said. If they do not improve, the firing process will begin.

Based on research in other states, “there will be teachers who should not be in the classroom,” Webster said. He predicted 1 to 2 percent. What will be more common, he said, is that teachers who are not effective will become effective.

“I want teachers to be all they can be,” Webster said.

This past winter Maine lawmakers passed LD 1858, which mandates that school districts create effectiveness rating systems. Any teacher who receives two consecutive years of ineffective scores could have his or her contract canceled. School districts are to build those systems by the 2015-16 school year.

“We’ve accomplished something that other districts are just beginning to think about,” Webster said. “I find that quite exciting.”

Lewiston this year piloted the program at Farwell and Longley elementary schools. This summer and fall, teachers and administrators will undergo training. “We’ll be devoting 25 hours of workshop time over the year,” Webster said.

Principals and teachers will begin visiting classrooms in the fall to observe and evaluate teachers based on objective standards. They’ll use iPads with built-in applications to record what teachers do well and what needs improvement. The iPads are “a real time saver,” Webster said. “They can go in a classroom and click buttons,” then upload information. Final assessments will be done in the spring.

Lewiston teachers’ union leader Elizabeth Dulac said teachers were apprehensive about the new evaluation. To achieve improved teacher effectiveness and student learning, the School Department must allow teachers enough time to learn, practice, reflect and refine their skills, Dulac said.

Farwell Principal Althea Walker said she likes the new evaluation, and teachers like that it’s objective, not subjective. “It’s no longer based on how you’re dressed or things that don’t matter,” she said.

But Walker agreed with Dulac about the concern on where principals and teachers will find time to train and evaluate. “That’s the million-dollar question,” Walker said. “Next year will be challenging.”

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