This report wasn’t recommending basing everything on standardized test scores. It stated, “Objective measures of student achievement gains must be a major component of teacher evaluation” and listed a number of specific measures to pull from. These included student work (including performance criteria and evidence of student growth), teacher-generated information about student goals and growth, formative assessments, objective performance-based assessments, assessments of affective engagement and self-efficacy. Student growth needs to be a part of the evaluation process, I think everyone agrees on that… if we are teaching well students show growth. But…measuring this is complicated. Again, if you log onto the site there is a lot of meaningful discussion going on about this issue.

The measures listed are difficult to quantify and extremely complicated, but there is research out there and it can be done. Shouldn’t we start looking seriously at how to do this rather than not engaging in the discussion and leaving it to those outside of the profession? If teachers aren’t a part of the process (another one of the recommendations made is that involving teachers and teacher groups in the design of an eval system is necessary) those designing an evaluation will default to the easiest and least complicated option of simply pulling test scores.

But student achievement was only one of the components discussed in the recommendations. Again, I would encourage reading the full report and even more importantly all of the discussion that led up to it and add all of the thoughtful discussion going on in this blog to the site. Much of what is being discussed here is included in the report (the need for thoughtful feedback at the classroom level through evaluations implemented by skilled and knowledgeable evaluators for instance). Under recommendation 2 and 3 these ideas are discussed at length beginning with the statement that… Teacher evaluations cannot rely on measures of student learning outcomes alone (even the multiple and varied measures included in recommendation 1). Teachers need feedback during the school year on their daily practice, and assessments of student achievement are insufficient to capture all of the work, leadership, and skill that a teacher needs to be effective. I think all teachers agree that we need thoughtful, calibrated measures at the student and classroom level and that standards of classroom practice need to be clearly defined for those being evaluated and those doing the evaluating. How many of us have been evaluated by an administrator unfamiliar with our grade level or content area and unknowledgeable about classroom practice…or too busy to do much more than mark “dressed appropriately” and “effective classroom management demonstrated?”

So…check out the site and the report and add to the discussion. Through Race to the Top etc a teacher evaluation system is coming. I’d really like to see it be thoughtful, comprehensive, logical, and be generated by those in the profession who understand just how complicated and critical it is.
http://www.hopestreetgroup.org

This report wasn’t recommending basing everything on standardized test scores. It stated, “Objective measures of student achievement gains must be a major component of teacher evaluation” and listed a number of specific measures to pull from. These included student work (including performance criteria and evidence of student growth), teacher-generated information about student goals and growth, formative assessments, objective performance-based assessments, assessments of affective engagement and self-efficacy. Student growth needs to be a part of the evaluation process, I think everyone agrees on that… if we are teaching well students show growth. But…measuring this is complicated. Again, if you log onto the site there is a lot of meaningful discussion going on about this issue.

The measures listed are difficult to quantify and extremely complicated, but there is research out there and it can be done. Shouldn’t we start looking seriously at how to do this rather than not engaging in the discussion and leaving it to those outside of the profession? If teachers aren’t a part of the process (another one of the recommendations made is that involving teachers and teacher groups in the design of an eval system is necessary) those designing an evaluation will default to the easiest and least complicated option of simply pulling test scores.

But student achievement was only one of the components discussed in the recommendations. Again, I would encourage reading the full report and even more importantly all of the discussion that led up to it and add all of the thoughtful discussion going on in this blog to the site. Much of what is being discussed here is included in the report (the need for thoughtful feedback at the classroom level through evaluations implemented by skilled and knowledgeable evaluators for instance). Under recommendation 2 and 3 these ideas are discussed at length beginning with the statement that… Teacher evaluations cannot rely on measures of student learning outcomes alone (even the multiple and varied measures included in recommendation 1). Teachers need feedback during the school year on their daily practice, and assessments of student achievement are insufficient to capture all of the work, leadership, and skill that a teacher needs to be effective. I think all teachers agree that we need thoughtful, calibrated measures at the student and classroom level and that standards of classroom practice need to be clearly defined for those being evaluated and those doing the evaluating. How many of us have been evaluated by an administrator unfamiliar with our grade level or content area and unknowledgeable about classroom practice…or too busy to do much more than mark “dressed appropriately” and “effective classroom management demonstrated?”

So…check out the site and the report and add to the discussion. Through Race to the Top etc a teacher evaluation system is coming. I’d really like to see it be thoughtful, comprehensive, logical, and be generated by those in the profession who understand just how complicated and critical it is. http://www.hopestreetgroup.org

Any attempt to rate teachers on student performance will result in a direct negative premium in being assigned Negro (love that word!) students. One can beat around the bush about just trying to avoid dull students in favor of bright ones, but to speak plainly as I tend to do – you’d want Jewish kids in your assigned classrooms, not blacks.

Because all people are not created equal. Some people tend to – in groups – test higher.

It’s hard enough to get teachers willing to work with black students as it is.

So there’s your pay them by performance issue. Who in their right mind would work under such nonsense?