Evaluating teachers
63Grading Teachers
Having taught in a variety of schools both public and private for over twenty years, I have an informed opinion on this subject. I agree that all work requires evaluation and accountability. Teachers of all people should and do recognize this principle; otherwise, how could they grade students and evaluate their performance in good conscience. The argument is more about what the criteria are, who will be doing the evaluation and how the results will be used. It is one thing to use an evaluation to help a teacher improve another to "cull" (I don't like that word as applied to people). Good evaluations include a variety of measures both quantitative and qualitative. Sensitive use of qualitative measures can be as or more effective in evaluating a teacher than quantitative. I would propose a degree of self-evaluation; peer evaluation; student evaluation; use of professional growth opportunities, in addition to value-added on tests, be aggregated, perhaps each weighted 25%. Then the team of teachers and administrators should institute procedures for teachers in each quartile. A teacher scoring in the lowest quartile should have a year or two to perform better. However, some teachers should be counseled out of the profession almost immediately if a school principal deems it necessary. I believe in unions and contracts for teachers, but I don't believe in tenure. I teach in a private school that has an "at will" contract that is really no contract at all. Each year about this time teachers mill about feeling threatened as if in a game of musical chairs. It is an undignified and cruel procedure. Once a teacher has proven his or her worth to an institution over time, he or she should deserve at least a three year contract. I believe teachers are ready and willing to participate in constructing and accepting a rational evaluation procedure. What they object to is top-down arrogance and punditry from outsiders who have never taught. Teaching is a nuanced profession involving art and many things personal that are simply unquantifiable. How important is it to you as a parent that a teacher cares about your child's integrity, personhood, confidence, ethical being, imaginative creativity etc. How are these critical dimensions of growth to be measured by value-added scores on a standardized exam? Our culture places too much faith in numbers and utility. We need to understand that emotional and intellectual growth is organic. Too many technocrats poison the field.
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Sturgeonl, Glad you had a positive response to the position. I was going to reply to a discussion of the issue in today's NYTimes but my response was too long, so I decided to publish it as a hub instead.
It is very important to me as a parent that my children have a teacher who cares about their integrity, personhood, confidence, ethical being, imaginative creativity etc. You sound like a caring and responsible teacher. I am sorry you feel persecuted for doing your job. If all teachers were like you there would be no need for teacher evaluations.
I have had personal experience with bad teachers through my daughters.
1 My youngest daughters kindergarten teacher did all her work for her. I was getting a report card with all A's but my daughter didn't know anything!!! Her teacher had left her behind the class. She would teach then when the other kids were done she would go do my daughters work. My daughter had developed some bad habits with her school work and I had informed the teacher about this before she started there. My daughter would pretend she didn't know something in order to get out of doing work. I did not know her teacher had let her continue on this path, she was sending home books etc. saying my daughter had read them. She could not read the books AT ALL. The homework she sent home with her was done so I did not know her teacher was doing it for her, reading the words before and after the fill in the blank spot and telling my daughter what to write. She even did her math homework for her! By the way this was her second time in Kindergarten with this same teacher. If I had not taken her out of that class last February she would not have been ready for first grade. It makes me so sad that her teacher cared so little for her, she is such a little sweet heart. The reason I had a clue anything was going on, the teachers assistant gave me some clues. The teacher did nothing.
2 We moved to the city of Madison Alabama from a small country town, the teacher at my oldest daughters new school was quite hateful saying my daughter would be far behind the other students. She had always been a straight A student by the way, she was reading at a 2nd grade level in Kindergarten. My daughter was given little attention in class. I asked her to tell me what she needed to work on and give me papers to help catch her up and she refused! I had to go to the principal and have the principal talk to the teacher. I got the extra papers or work to catch my daughter up. The next year the son of my neighbor had the same teacher and the same problem. The teacher again refused to help bring the boy up to speed...
3 We moved back to the country and at the country school my oldest daughter received no homework, was learning nothing in class. The teachers were there to earn a paycheck. I hate to say that to you, a teacher but it's true. I changed her school again, this time I found one that cared about the students with Great Teacher that kept them busy learning and exploring plus they had programs, many different programs to help students grow up to become prosperous adults.
If only all teachers cared like you seem to there would be no need for teacher evaluations.
Laura, Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I agree that there are some number of very bad teachers and they do a lot of damage particularly in the elementary grades. My daughter had a bad math teacher in elementary school who pretty much permanently destroyed her confidence in math. Some of the lower rungs of hell are reserved for such teachers. There does need to be an efficient and fair path to showing such teachers the door. And it is true that unions have done too much to protect such teachers who don't deserve the name. I'm sorry for your children's experiences. I must say that I have seen some really poor teachers, but for the most part I can also report that they have been few in number in my experience. They are moved out of our school often within the year and certainly are not invited to return for a second year. Principals need the power to react quickly and responsibly to disastrous teaching precisely because they can do so much damage so quickly. To tolerate such a teacher year in and out is a crime. I do believe that there needs to be teacher evaluations to hold them accountable, but teachers need to buy in and help construct the evaluative tools.
I find your position interesting. There are some parts I agree with and some only to a degree. But I really like the idea of no tenure and having contracts for a few years at a time. I think it keeps everyone at their best and weeds out those not meant for the profession. I personally did not receive tenure when I taught at the high school level. But found it ironic that many who did not work hard or care about the students were a "shoe-in." For example one woman was receiving tenure. The day after the letter went out, she was in the newspaper for shoplifting and tenure was taken off the table. I was on the cover of the district newsletter for my innovative classroom projects and no tenure for me.
Unfortunately, administrators have too much say in the process, and they are the ones who have the least contact with the teachers. When the new administration rolled in at my school, it became clear that even though they liked my work ethic, I had to go so as not to make "others" look "bad" or something to that effect. There were differing thoughts (including the school did not want to pay their contractual obligation for my Master's courses), but all the union could say at first was, "We never heard that your weren't going to get tenure, everyone knows you are good." Once I got the letter, they were all shocked, but when they saw the stack of files I had about the inappropriate measures taken against me, the union suddenly wanted to spring into action to get me to fight for tenure. I said, "No." I did not want to be where I was not welcome. All my evaluations were glowing, and even ones from the new administrators only had the worst negative comment--if you can call it that--be that I verbally asked a student to stop tapping his pencil instead of using proximity. But I digress heavily...
Unfortunately American educational standards are regressing. And many schools are just looking for teachers that go with the flow and do not really care about graduating competent students. While I have many examples of this, I think the best is how one of my administrators told me I should look to my mentor as an example of what to do. She had almost all honors classes and let them play X-box and a slew of other electronic and board games to pass the time. She did not even hand in my evaluations on time...oh, that was because she did not meet her obligation of sitting in on my classes and participating in monthly meetings. Then I was told to sit in on other teachers to see their classroom management. This was also funny because everyone raved about how good my classroom management was for being a new teacher. So, I went to check out the teacher who won teacher of the year and one's known to be good teachers. Then I was told, I should not have gone to see them but other people. Go figure!
Stephanie, Thank you for serious response. I agree with you that administrators don't take nearly the blame for the state of our schools that they deserve. It is always the "bad teachers". Meanwhile administrators are often failed teachers or teachers who want to climb the financial ladder as quickly as possible. They go back to school for an "administrative credential' as fast as their little legs can carry them after teaching a couple of years. And the problem is that school leadership counts. I am in favor of a lot more democracy in education with concerns and leaders emerging from the bottom up. I am also in favor of teacher led schools and teacher constructed curriculums. I think it would be perfectly possible for teachers to share leadership positions.
No problem barranca. It's nice to come across someone who understands the convoluted politics of education. It has been my experience that administrators are those who you state. I definitely saw this at the high school level and we had a revolving door of administrators that were just getting their feet wet, had a few years of teaching in before they decided to be an administrator, etc.
I agree there should be more promotion of teachers as content and educational experts. There are many talented teachers schools can rely on and use to their advantage, but would rather pay someone from the outside to do a half decent job for a school they know little to nothing about. I am all for teacher constructed curricula and even having teachers promoted to the leadership positions while still being able to teach a reduced load.
Teachers in many communities have been unfairly blamed for low student test scores which result more from poverty and family than teacher performance.
Ralph, Yep. Barranca
Sturgeonl Level 4 Commenter 4 months ago
As a teacher I appreciate the perspective you have given. You handled the topic of evaluating teachers very well and raised great points. I am happy to follow. Great Hubs.