As I considered a topic for this week's blog I stumbled across, 12,000 Teacher reports, but what to do?, an article published by the New york Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/nyregion/09teachers.html?_r=l&ref=education
the article takes a look at how New York State is creating reports on teacher performance. The NYDOE tracks student progress for each teacher and compares them to other teacher's in the State. The reports are distributed to school administrators to use as the deem appropriate. One principal interviewed gave his teachers the option of viewing the reports, some teachers chose to, others not. What really bothered me about this practice is that the reports are not necessarily shared with the teacher. Teacher evaluation is expected, just as any other professional should expect scrutiny of their performance. But, and I feel it is a big but, aren't we as teachers expected to inform our students what to expect for assessments and use the results of those assessments to improve learning? How can a mid or low performing teacher access this data in order to improve performance if they are unaware of the assessment's results? It definitely feels like a double standard.
The article reports on President Obama's desire to tie federal dollars to teacher evaluation coupled to student assessment. However when I followed the link, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per
the only news on education focused on last week's debate over his speech to school children. A second link, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/education/17educ.html , directs you to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Here you find the cover article focuses on how to spend stimulus money. He did make it clear that he would not "reward" low achieving schools with any of this windfall. I followed a few more links and still did not find any suggestions on how to best evaluate teachers. This all led me back to the feeling that something could be going on behind my back. Scary.
It is not that I think teachers should not be held accountable for student performance. I just feel we should have the same provisions we give students. a system needs to be developed where teachers are openly and fairly evaluated on more than student achievement tests. Included in evaluation must be a mechanism for providing professional development and support for low performing teachers who want to improve their skills.
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I have to admit Allyson this post made me a little confused and maybe it was because of the information portrayed within the articles. Did the information confuse you as well? Obviously there was no accountable information on how to evaluate teachers. New York stated that they evaluate teachers and then pass the information on to other districts. Right? Then what? There seems to be very little accountability made through this 'report.' What good is to come of it and how can the teachers who are being reported on see their own results? Or can't they?
ReplyDeleteI believe teacher performance is best measured through fellow teachers within the same school. Teachers are based as TEAM players and if one does not perform to the highest level possible other teachers can tell. Principals also evaluate teachers on a regular basis (hopefully) to determine if a teacher is performing. Parents who are active and involved in their child(ren)'s education can also have an inclination of a teacher's performance.
New York may just be wasting away taxpayers money on this one!
Yes, it was confusing as to how NY planned to use this information. I kind of got the idea that they were getting a jump on tieing teacher assessment to student performance in order to keep federal funding. Uneccesary as that hasn't happened yet. I can't help but feel the money could be better spent.
ReplyDeleteTeacher evaluation is a difficult issue. I absolutely agree that teacher evaluation should never be tied solely to student performance on a standardized test. I fear that if the idea of evaluating teacher performance based on student test performance continues, we will find too many teachers taking the approach of teaching to the test.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, we kept the doors to our classrooms open all day long unless the halls were noisy or the students were taking a test. Administrators were regularly walking by, or stepping into our classrooms to observe. Therefore, the official visit was just an extension of all the observed classroom activities.
Today, with the security issues schools are faced with, teachers are encouraged to keep their doors closed and locked. We recently had new heating/cooling units installed, and for them to work properly the classroom doors must be kept closed. This creates a challenge for the evaluation process, because the informal evaluations are diminishing due to barriers of achieving those observations. When administrators want to conduct a formal observation, they ask the teacher when would be a good time to observe them. This is understandable, because an observation should be of the teacher's skills, not their supervision of a test or project. Our administrators do a good job of providing us with the criteria we will be evaluated on. However, it is easy to put your best foot forward when you know when you are going to be evaluated. Unfortunately, it means that the shortcomings of a teacher often is not recognized so improvement plans for some never get written.
I agree that teachers need to be held accountable. However, creating one evaluation method for all teachers is as flawed as using only standardized tests to measure student achievement.
Randy
Do you know if this document compares teachers in similar districts or is it like a ranking with all science teachers in the same pool regardless of locality? I am all for observing teachers and keeping tabs on performance however transparency should be applied to this. If the state is putting out a report with my name on it I should get a copy. Also this is when contract language comes into play. I know in my district evaluation protocol is clearly spelled out.
ReplyDelete