Teacher Evaluation
Introduction
Years of research have proven that nothing schools can do for their students matters more than giving them effective teachers. A few years with effective teachers can put even the most disadvantaged students on the path to college. A few years with ineffective teachers can deal students an academic blow from which they may never recover.
Research has also shown that the best predictor of a teacher’s effectiveness is his or her past success in the classroom. Most other factors pale in comparison, including a teacher’s preparation route, advanced degrees, and even experience level (after the first few years). The lesson is clear: to ensure that every child learns from the most effective teachers possible, schools must be able to gauge their teachers’ performance fairly and accurately.*
Teacher Evaluation
Evaluations should provide all teachers with regular feedback that helps them grow as professionals, no matter how long they have been in the classroom. Evaluations should give schools the information they need to build the strongest possible instructional teams, and help districts hold school leaders accountable forsupporting each teacher’s development. Most importantly, they should focus everyone in a school system, from teachers to the superintendent, on what matters most: keeping every student on track to graduate from high school ready for success in college or a career.
Teacher Evaluation Approaches
annual process
School leaders should evaluate every teacher at least once a year. Annual evaluation is the only way to ensure that all teachers—regardless of their ability level or years of experience—get the ongoing feedback on their performance that all professionals deserve. This approach recognizes that a teacher’s effectiveness and developmental needs may change over time, and it sends a message to school leaders that they are accountable for helping all their teachers grow as professionals. The ratings from annual evaluations will also allow schools to make important employment decisions based on up-to-date information.
clear, rigorous expectations
Teachers should be evaluated against clear, rigorous performance expectations based primarily on evidence of student learning (as opposed to teacher behaviors or routines). Expectations should reflect excellence in the classroom, not minimally acceptable performance. They should also be precisely worded and leave little room for inference (e.g., be built around observable evidence that students are actively engaged in the lesson, not whether the lesson plan appears to be engaging on paper), to ensure that all teachers and instructional managers interpret them in the same way.
multiple measures
No single data point can paint a complete picture of a teacher’s performance, so
evaluation systems should use multiple measures to determine whether teachers have met performance expectations. Whenever possible, these should include objective measures of student academic growth, such as value-added models that connect students’ progress on standardized assessments to individual teachers while controlling for important factors such as students’ academic history. Other possible measures include performance on district-wide or teacher-generated assessments, and classroom observations centered on evidence of student learning. Each measure should have a specific weight, so that teachers and instructional managers understand how each component will factor into the final evaluation rating. The most weight should be afforded to the most accurate measures of student progress, which will often be the objective measures.
multiple ratings
Each teacher should earn one of four or five summative ratings at the end of each school year: for example, “highly effective,” “effective,” “needs improvement” or “ineffective.” This number of categories is large enough to give teachers a clear picture of their current performance, but small enough to allow for clear, consistent distinctions between each level and meaningful differentiation of teacher performance within schools and across the district. For example, instructional managers will need to think carefully about whether a moderately performing teacher falls into the “effective” or “needs improvement” category, which will ensure that the teacher receives support tailored to her specific needs.
regular feedback
An evaluation system should not be limited to a single rating assigned at the end of the year. Instead, instructional managers should strive to cultivate a performance-focused culture by observing their teachers frequently. They should also have regular conversations with their teachers to discuss overall classroom performance and student progress; professional goals and developmental needs; and the support school leaders will provide to meet those needs. Teachers and instructional managers should come away from these conversations with a shared understanding of what the teacher needs to focus on in the short term and how the instructional manager will help.
significance
An evaluation process must have meaningful implications, both positive and negative, in order to earn sustained support from teachers and school leaders and to contribute to the systematic improvement of the teacher workforce. It should produce information that districts can easily factor into important decisions about teacher tenure, compensation, development, hiring, promotion and dismissal. This means that the results of evaluations must be accurate, clear and easy to interpret.
Conclusion
What does it mean to be an effective teacher? In my opinion an effective teacher should provide to the students the opportunity to reach their potential intellectually, socially and emotionally. Effective teachers have high expectations for their students, and use a variety of materials and resources to plan lessons, monitor instruction and assess student learning. Effective teachers know the value of collaborating with other teachers, parents and administrators to ensure that students are successful. Effective teachers understand that teaching is not merely pouring content into children. It is about facilitating learning: motivating children to learn, giving them the support necessary to develop skills and knowledge, and helping them overcome problems and assume responsibility for their actions and their learning.
Getting evaluation on my teaching will give me an opportunity to see my weakness and areas that I need to improve. I would like that my mentor/instructor evaluate my teaching using evaluation components such as feedback, summative evaluation, and classroom observation. Classroom observation and feedback will provide me information about how well I am managing classroom behavior, how well I am managing time, if I am engaging students in the instruction, how effectively I am using teaching strategies. Summative evaluation will give opportunity to see in details what I did well and where I need improvements. Teacher evaluations are very important because it is most effective way of improve teaching.
References
*Jordan, Mendro, and Weerasinghe, The Effects of Teachers on Longitudinal Student Achievement, 1997
URLhttp://www.aft.org/position/teacher-development-and-evaluation
Website TitleAmerican Federation of Teachers
Article TitleTeacher Development and Evaluation
Date AccessedFebruary 15, 2017
URLhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dRJe6uR46o
Website TitleYouTube
Article TitleMultiple Measures for Teacher Evaluation
Date PublishedDecember 05, 2011
Date AccessedFebruary 15, 2017