We know dance teachers aren’t scruffy. Make sure your school system does, too.

Last week, inspectors from England’s Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, better known as Ofsted, condemned dance teachers’ “scruffy” appearance in a London secondary school. The dance community leaped (metaphorically) to the teachers’ defense, explaining that—obviously, some would say—dance educators need to wear more movement-friendly clothing than math teachers. The incident even prompted a #danceteachersarentscruffy hashtag and photo-posting trend on Twitter.

This spring, the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) will host a conference to prevent similar errors and confusion in U.S. teacher evaluations. Scheduled for May 16–18 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Charting the Course: Approaches to Teacher Evaluation for K–12 Dance Educators offers a chance for dance teachers to learn about issues surrounding national teacher evaluations and to develop solutions that can be implemented in their own local school districts, ensuring dance instructors are evaluated fairly and accurately in academic environments. With the right practices in place, schools will hopefully be less likely to suggest a suit-and-tie dress code in creative movement class, or worse, fire effective educators.

For more information, visit ndeo.org

Photo by Patty Kaufman, Cactus High School