HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives on Wednesday cast a strong, if symbolic, vote in favor of widening the scope of professional evaluations for tens of thousands of teachers and principals across the state.

By a 199-0 tally, representatives approved a compromise amendment to the bill sponsored by Rep. Ryan Aument that balanced many lawmakers’ desire to overhaul the system against concerns over how much weight should be given to students’ achievement and the best way to measure it.

Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has targeted the overhaul of the teacher evaluation system as one of his top legislative priorities.

Aument’s bill would replace the present evaluation system, which is based entirely on classroom observations by superiors. The proposed new hybrid system would rely on those observations for only half of an educator’s rating. The other half would be based on a 16 different measures of student achievement, including standardized test scores, but also classroom activities, quiz scores and school projects.

A final vote on the amended bill could come as early as today.

Aument, R-Lancaster, hailed the compromise as “ground breaking legislation” that is similar to laws in effect in 23 other states and the District of Columbia.

Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley cited the 99 percent of the present evaluations that are “satisfactory” as evidence that they are ineffective. He applauded the inclusion of standardized tests as a measure of student achievement.

“Real clear measurements that people in the private sector and every other industry have to use will rightly be applied to teachers and administrators,” Harley said.