It is time for teachers to tend to their profession. It is time for teachers to lead the discussion over teacher evaluation. It is time for teachers to articulate the standards by which they should be held accountable.
This call to action is pertinent (look at the current submissions for R2T funds) and it is long overdue. The New York Times published an editorial last Sunday that rightfully challenged current teacher evaluations.
The shortcomings of evaluations were laid out last year in an eye-opening study by a New York research group, the New Teacher Project. Where they can be said to exist at all, evaluations are typically short, pro forma and almost universally positive. Poorly trained evaluators visit the classroom once or twice for observations that last for a total of an hour or less. Nearly every teacher passes and the overwhelming majority of teachers receive top ratings.
Yet more than half the teachers surveyed said they knew a tenured teacher who deserved to be dismissed for poor performance.
The last sentence hit me hard. Why would we (teachers) let this happen? Teachers know what good teaching looks like. We have to use this knowledge to move our profession from the teaching model of thirty years ago—the “do no harm” approach—to a model that ensures that all students can reach academic standards. If a call to professionalism doesn’t motivate you then perhaps the concern that all of this will be done with or without our assistance should.
Popularity: 40% [?]
It seems to me that part of the issue is lack of clarity concerning exactly what “good teaching” is. I would agree that many of us (I am a high school teacher) recognize “good teaching” when we see it but it can be difficult to articulate and format for evaluative purposes. This is by no means an excuse meant to avoid evaluations or a change in current evaluative process but I think we should proceed with caution. I agree that the current process is poorly designed and a more professional process would be welcomed by many. However, the “inputs vs. outputs” debate creates a false dichotomy in my opinion; it ought to be a bit of both and should recognize the pitfalls inherent in relying on one or the other. Just my 2 cents…
Thanks Mark for putting this out. You are right. I’m guessing that if the public really knew how our school district employment systems worked they’d call for radical change and be willing to pay more in taxes. By the way, teacher unions, school boards and district administrators all play a role in protecting the current system. It’s not just the unions though they play a huge roll in blocking any change.
What real profession protects the bottom 5-10% of performers (who we know are doing serious damage to kids and our community), treats all like interchangeable widgets and has little reward or support for the best performers? Contrary to what some may say we have the tools and information available to implement systems that would lead to the development of high performing schools where teachers are treated like the professionals that we desperately need. Our challenge is the public’s understanding of public education and the politics required to make these changes.
“I’m guessing that if the public really knew how our school district employment systems worked they’d call for radical change and be willing to pay more in taxes.”
You’re exactly right.
And, as I’ve said ad nauseum, it is easier to perceive the wackiness of the existing systems, by removing educators themselves from the mix. It may be difficult to evaluate a teacher, as we’ve come to understand, but it is not hard to evaluate clerical, transportation and other classified workers, whose performance should be pretty darned easy to pin down and whose positions should be based purely on merit to begin with.
The same is true for the executive levels, where most compensation is paid out.
Poor teachers! they have gotten the brunt of public focus, with little power to change What Is.
Ok Mark, I’m ready to step outside of my classroom and lead. Now what?
Where do I set up my forum? How do I gain media access? I’m supposed to recruit other teachers in the face of union opposition and administration stonewalling? I have to admit at least DPS teachers and their union did help bring about ProComp. But ProComp wasn’t really designed for deep, systemic change; it’s just a bit more thoughtful than what there was previously.
The key is defining “good teaching.” Teachers know what good teacing looks like. Ask any teacher who has a son or daughter who attends the school where they teach. Watch as that teacher demands that their son or daughter be switched from one teacher to another. Why? Because the teacher knows who is a good teacher and who is not. Let’s take this knowledge and beging to construct a defintion of good teaching.
Mark, I’d agree with you that this would be a good place to start. My observation is that teachers do indeed seem to have both an objective ability to evaluate their peers, and a history of having observed the results of their efforts. At present, do fellow teachers in a school have any input into HR decisions?
My main concern about the evaluation issue overall is that admins often are less educated than those they’re evaluating. They have their own “fish to fry” so I tend to rely on their observations less than those you’ve pointed out: fellow teachers. Those people have experienced “difficult parents,” community shifts and other site-specific challenges already.
At the same time, the federal and public perception is that some schools are “working fine” merely because they’ve accepted poor results. Sure, everybody gets along great and approves eachother’s efforts, but they’re not headed anywhere but Down.
Actually Alan was right: the tension between the radical and incremental reform we’ve previously discussed, is at the heart of teacher evaluations, pensions, charters & all these other issues that seem to be such a struggle. But lately I feel more optimistic about them: as though the public’s resolving to struggle is itself a manifestation of positive change ahead. I’d certainly hope in that regard that HR “collaboration” within a particular school would include a mechanism whereby fellow teachers could anonymously comment on their peers, and did not realize this was not already occurring.
In any event, Mark’s column is certainly a topical one: Teachers, you’d better start to speak up for yourselves, or the decisions will be made for you! Really BIG decisions!! If the public cannot turn to you for sane objective input on these vital Issues of the Day, then whose voices would you prefer we listen to?
A good starting point is to look at the various Peer Assistance and Peer Review programs that are scattered throughout the country (look at Toledo). These programs use teachers, as well as admin, to identify, and most importantly, remediate struggling teachers. I am always amazed at the resistance from teachers regarding the use of collegues as evaluators. We need to get over this.
As a special education advocate, I would like to suggest that teachers in regular education look at a really good example of an Independent Educational Program/IEP. A good IEP will produce objective, measurable data using peer-reviewed methodology for instruction based on the sped student’s learning style/unique needs. The data, if collected objectively, not subjectively, will demonstrate progress or regression. There are other examples in a good IEP that can transfer over to the broader educational system of evaluating teachers’ performances by how well a student is learning.
To Mark’s last point – I can’t remember for sure who said this to me. I think it was Adam Urbanski from Rochester, NY, director of the Teachers Union Reform Network and now a VP of the AFT. Anyway, it rings true.
He said, peer evaluation and assistance are only controversial in school districts that do not have them.
The teachers I have discussed this with in the past 12 months have been unanimous in their interest and the teachers I know who are most serious about being understood (and behaving) as professionals are champing at the bit to start peer evaluations.
I can anticipate a cynic thinking – there go those clever, lazy teachers again, trying to co-opt a good system and maintain the “club” of under-performing workers. Of course teachers will give each other good evaluations and nothing will change.
If that was your first reaction, I can only suggest that you get to know many more working teachers.