The Start of a Discussion on Teacher Evaluations

Teachers, like other employees in every other company everywhere, need to be evaluated, and the current process of evaluation is broken. By way of example, here are the results of some of my evaluations, and keep in mind that I work in a good school district with a pretty good administration.

My first year of teaching, even though by the end of my first year I was teaching 5 different classes and 3 of them Honor or AP level and my students test scores showed improvement over the previous years, I received a mixed evaluation in the only time I was evaluated because the vice-principal said that I always looked worn down and was always in a rush. My second year teaching, even though the average scores of my students on the AP were a dramatic improvement over the teacher who taught the class in previous years and even though I was on several important committees and running several clubs, a couple of which I wasn't paid for, my review as again mixed, as my vice-principal felt that my room didn't have enough color and posters in it. It wasn't until my third year teaching that I actually had a vice-principal who stopped in my room more than the one or two times they were contractually obligated to, and during our conversations this person actually referred to data and common assessments and such, and under that measure, I received high evaluations across the board. In recent years, I don't think I've really been evaluated at all.

Teachers need to be evaluated better than this. We are professionals and should be provided with regular feedback so that we can continue to grow and improve our teaching. Every year I go through my numbers on common assessments and AP exams and identify where I am weak and where I can improve, but I do this in isolation with no encouragement or recognition and little help from those who may provide me with additional help and resources that I may need. Evaluations can provide schools with information that they need when making hiring or firing or compensation or placement decisions. And evaluations can help focus and direct teachers into producing results that are measurable and concrete- teachers can no longer simply measure one another based on height but instead should measure one another based on how high their students go.

Evaluations should all meet certain central guidelines. They should be conducted annually, they should be based on clear and rigorous expectations, they should be based on multiple measures, they should rate teachers multiple ways, should provide feedback to teachers, and should be used to make significant decisions in the education world.

One guide that I found that does a good job of discussing teacher evaluations and dispelling a lot of the fear and myths that surround them was guide put out by the New Teacher Project called Teacher Evaluation 2.0. I encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about teacher evaluations to read this short guide and ponder it- we need to move forward with better evaluations for teachers and this guide helps.