All school employees are held accountable for their performance; whether it is the school nurse, secretary, media specialist, or the classroom teacher, evaluations are a requirement. The local board policy states that all personnel that are employed by their system shall have a performance evaluation that will be administered by their immediate supervisor. Prior to employment, the supervisor is responsible for explaining the duties and responsibilities that will be evaluated at the end of the school term. Certified personnel will be responsible for individual pre-conferences where they set personal and student achievement goals. In addition, they will review the formal evaluation instrument as well as their duties and responsibilities. In the event that the personnel member has some deficiencies in their evaluation, the supervisor must provide professional development opportunities to assist with improvement in the deficient area. The Superintendent of the local system is evaluated by the Board of Education, the principals and district office personnel are evaluated by the Superintendent, custodians, paraprofessionals and certificated personnel are evaluated by the building principals, and the transportation personnel are evaluated by the transportation director.
Presenting evaluation instruments to the employees prior to working provides them with the tools to be successful in their job capacity. Teacher evaluation models, however, are not reflective of their true expectations. Not only are they responsible for the items on the evaluation, but with the increased demands of ensuring student achievement, they must make certain that all students meet standards on the state tests, too. In order to ensure that evaluations are reflective of their efforts in the classroom, systems should require teachers to provide data to show student growth. This can occur through benchmark tests or computer programs that track student success based on the state standards. Teachers should also participate in pre and post evaluations, which include relevant concepts that reflect teacher practices. Lastly, forcing teachers to leave the schools because of two unsuccessful evaluations is absurd. The school administration must take a look at the opportunities that they provided for the teacher to assist with improvement. The writer believes in providing professional learning opportunities, reviewing teacher portfolios and student data before threatening dismissal for certified personnel.
3 comments:
Stephanie,
I agree that evaluations are not a proper reflection of a teacher’s performance. They evaluations used are rather cookie cutter. They are too general and do not reflect the changes in education systems. For example, many schools promote differentiated learning and reaching students’ multiple intelligences. In my school in particular, the teachers are expected to teach collaboratively with the support teachers within the room as well as use technology to its fullest potential. However, none of these aspects are on the evaluation form. Therefore, if these things are so important, then they should be noted in the proper section of the evaluation form. I doubt very highly that the evaluation form in my school as been changed much since I was a student there, let alone during the last five years of me teaching there. This is where administration tends to drop the ball. Some say if it isn’t broke don’t fix it, but if no one is examining whether it’s broke, how do they know if it needs fixing?
I am not sure I understand what you mean in teachers submitting bench mark test results. I think teachers do this by submitting report cards and reviews on students. This can also be done through lesson planning. Schools can require the objectives align with curriculum standards. However, I don’t know if more testing is the best thing. Students are tested, tested, and tested again. Preparing them for tests take away from the little teaching time teachers have now. Many say do not teach to the test. I wasn’t for a few years. However, I was recently told to do so by administration in order to yield hire test results. So, if all we do is teach students how to be successful at taking tests, they will never learn to be successful at anything else. I think it is simply a matter of finding the right balance.
Jenn
Stephanie,
This situation is unfair. How can a teacher be dismissed without ample opportunity to correct the problem?
Surely those administors understand that not everyone that enters teaching comes with the one textbook understanding of how all these requiremnts (progress on state exams, discipline, parent contact,grading, classroom management, curriculum, etc)fit together without time and guidance.
What happened to mentoring teachers that are struggling with less than acceptable actions?
In most districts, teachers are given "walk throughs" that are small snapshots of teacher performance rather than just one evaluation date and time.
Does the teacher belong to any teacher organization that could give her support for what appears to be an unfair dismissal from the profession based upon an evaluation
?
Good luck.
Ivyspecial (Janis)
Janis-
In GA, they were talking about allowing the systems to create an instrument that was tailored to their system, but they still had to use the existing form. Too much paper. I have taken it upon myself to first of all review with the teachers what I am looking for in a lesson. I also review the evaluation form and give examples as to how it could relate to lessons that I have observed in the past. It is also beneficial when I go in and observe a lesson after I have attended a professional learning activity wtih them. It makes the experience real. But,how many times does this happen??
The benchmark tests only help us see where the students are. I am not a BIG supporter of the standardized tests, either. I feel if the teacher has done well all year by teaching the standards, the students should be able to pass the test at the end.
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