Teacher Evaluation

“ We are entering a new era of teacher evaluations. The expectation is that all teachers can increase their expertise from year to year and thereby produce gains in student achievement, with a powerful cumulative effect.” Dr. Robert Marzano.

Teacher evaluation consists of frequent observations and constructive feedback for educators through multiple observations and pre- and post-conferences. Educators work together to identify what is working well in the classroom (area of reinforcement), where there is room for improvement (area of refinement), and options for professional development to support continued growth.

While linking student achievement to teachers is certainly groundbreaking, nearly every state or district is improving how classroom observations are conducted, too. Gone are the days when a principal sits in on a teacher’s class every couple years, armed with a checklist of instructional requirements that rarely were associated with high quality instructional practices. In contrast, teachers are now being observed every year -- and for many, multiple times a year -- by trained evaluators using a researched-based rubric that more accurately judges instructional effectiveness. More importantly, the new classroom observations provide more useful feedback to teachers. 
Student achievement and classroom observations are not the only measures used to evaluate teachers. Student/parent surveys, lesson plan reviews, teacher self-reflections and student artifacts such as teacher assignments, assessments, scoring rubrics, and student work are just some of the other measures included in teacher evaluation systems.

Danielson Group website has described The Framework for Teaching as “a research-based set of components of instruction, aligned to the INTASC standards, and grounded in a constructivist view of learning and teaching.” It consists of four domains as we can see in the following picture:

We see that identifying teacher effectiveness is a relatively new concept and what I have found that no system will be perfect. But by examining the different approaches that have taken, education leaders can learn from each other to improve their own systems.

In defining Effective Teaching; Two basic approaches have been considered:

• Teacher practices, that is, what teachers do, how well they do the work of teaching.
• Results, that is, what teachers accomplish, typically how well their students learn.

And we should keep in mind The five-point definition of Effective Teachers which consists of the following:

• Effective teachers have high expectations for all students and help students learn, as measured by value-added or other test-based growth measures, or by alternative measures.

• Effective teachers contribute to positive academic, attitudinal, and social outcomes for students such as regular attendance, on-time promotion to the next grade, on-time graduation, self-efficacy, and cooperative behavior.

• Effective teachers use diverse resources to plan and structure engaging learning opportunities; monitor student progress formatively, adapting instruction as needed; and evaluate learning using multiple sources of evidence.

• Effective teachers contribute to the development of classrooms and schools that value diversity and civic-mindedness.

• Effective teachers collaborate with other teachers, administrators, parents, and education professionals to ensure student success, particularly the success of students with special needs and those at high risk for failure.

Let's talk about some of the current teacher evaluation approaches that have been used with many education leaders:

Multiple Measures where evaluations should consider multiple measures of performance, primarily the teacher’s impact on student academic growth but Multiple measures should not mean “anything goes."

Value-added models are promising, controversial, and increasingly common as a method of determining teacher effectiveness (when effectiveness is construed as teachers’ contributions to achievement). However, it is also the method that is the least understood by most education professionals and teachers. Unlike classroom observations in which the teachers actually meet their evaluator, value-added model evaluators conduct their analyses from afar.

Regular feedback Evaluations which should encourage frequent observations and constructive
critical feedback. Any evaluation system should not be limited to a single rating assigned at the end of the year.Teachers should be observed frequently they should also have regular conversations with education leaders to discuss overall classroom performance and student progress; professional goals and developmental needs. They should come away from these conversations with a shared understanding of what teacher needs to focus on in the short term and how the instructional manager will help.

What I can tell from these different approaches in most states, districts have wide discretion on which measures to include along with student achievement and classroom observations. Each of these measures has their strengths in providing teacher’s valuable feedback about their instructional practices. There is less evidence, however, that they accurately predict teachers’ impact on student learning. What I found that is a combination of these approaches could be more helpful to measure a teacher’s future effectiveness and can enhance the accuracy of an evaluation system when combined with measures of student achievement and classroom observations. 

Revisiting the five-point definition of teacher effectiveness, it is clear that using one or even both of these methods/approaches of measuring teacher effectiveness fails to indicate the many important ways in which teachers contribute to the success and well-being of their students, classrooms, and schools. Thus, creating a comprehensive score for teachers that includes multiple measures is one possible way to capture information that is not included in most classroom observation protocols.

The whole point of evaluation is getting a feedback to improve some aspects of teaching methods.

What I can tell about the elements on which I think teachers should be judged on are the following:

• Establishing a culture for learning
• Creating an environment of respect and rapport
• Managing classroom procedures and student behavior
• Communicating with students, parents, administrators and engaging students in learning.
• Demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness
• Using questioning discussions, techniques and assessment in instruction

A 2010 report from NEA's professional standards and practice committee summarize the primary purpose for evaluating teachers: " The core purpose of teacher assessment and evaluation should be to improve the knowledge, skills, dispositions and classroom practices of professional educators".

References:

1. Teacher evaluation 2.0. Retrieved on February 16,2017.

2. Approaches to Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness. Retrieved from https://www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/goe-research-synthesis.pdf on February 16,2017.

3. Criteria for an Effective Teacher Evaluation System. Retrieved from  http://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/spring-2014/criteria-effective-teacher-evaluation-system on February 16,2017.