I recently experienced the new teacher evaluation system through a different lens: that of a teacher. In our role as systems coaches, we most often look at initiatives through their potential to scale up high quality instruction for all students. Evaluation is not new to education, of course, but its role in the current reform efforts gives it a stronger emphasis than in the past. One significant change is the role of instructional frameworks, or teaching standards, in the evaluation system and the relationship of the evaluation instrument to those standards. The return on investment of this strategy has yet to be determined, but there is no doubt that teacher evaluation plays a significant and increasing presence in the current reform landscape.
My new perspective came from a life-long friend who, after trying a variety of careers, came to teaching rather recently. Here she found her calling, as she puts it, bringing her lifetime of experiences to elementary students and in the process, “changing lives,” according to the hoards of parents who clamor to get their children into her class. In her 15 years as a teacher, she’s certainly paid her dues, learning the challenges of classroom management, figuring out how to reach that recalcitrant student, adjusting curriculum so that different kids could learn math concepts that seemed just out of reach. These last few years she really hit her stride, loving everything about the career she finally found…until last month when I received a tearful call, telling me that she was going to leave teaching. After two glowing evaluations this year, she had just received a third that devastated her.
Stunned, I asked to see the evaluation that placed her on probation, an odd move for a tenured teacher. My first reaction after reading was, actually, “Wow. This principal really knows instruction.” The observation was detailed and zoomed in on specifics. He had scripted the lesson, relating descriptions observed and recorded to the evaluation form and was specific in pointing out areas of missed opportunities. My friend was recommended for further employment with two areas of action suggested by the observation. At first glance, it was hard to find fault with it.
Until I took a closer look…. Then I noticed that even in the areas marked as meeting standard she was almost always rated “beginning/emerging.” As I read it again, I saw how crushing it must have been for her, someone who, like many teachers, devotes her life to the success of her students, who routinely spends her evenings and at least a day every weekend planning lessons. Now, after 15 years, all she knows is that she is a “failure” and that the long steady of climb to affect the learning of students has come to naught. Crushing.
Now here’s the thing. I don’t know if she’s a good teacher or not. I’ve not seen her teach, nor would I be qualified to make that judgment if I had. I don’t challenge the standards against which she was evaluated. What I do know is that she’s a maverick in the classroom, that her students adore coming to school, that they do well on all standardized measures, and that (according to parents) they continue to thrive when they move on to middle school. Could she do better? I have no doubt that she could, as can we all. But what we have here is a teacher who has lost all confidence and with that, perhaps, her ability to continue to, as she’s been told she does, “change lives.”
This is not a slam on teacher evaluation, but it is a call for a reality check on the weight we’re giving this particular investment in student performance and how we’re going about it. A few years back, I had a “discussion” with a community member wishing that his district would do more about teacher evaluation. My response was, “Well, maybe. But I wouldn’t put too many eggs in that basket. It’s really only about a 5% solution.”
Startled, he asked what I meant. I explained that while every profession has those that need to be, shall we say, “counseled out,” in education we’re talking about 5 – maybe 10 – percent. So the biggest return you’d get on an investment in teacher evaluation would be 5-10%. His assumptions are common, I’ve found, with many who believe that stronger evaluation systems are the key to solving any and all problems of student learning. We’ve observed that the learning required to implement these new systems is taking significant amounts of time and resources. Are they worth it? At some point it behooves us to consider our return on this investment, including any unexpected consequences.
In the case of my friend, I doubt that the principal intended to counsel her out of teaching or erode her confidence. It is clear to me that he is an expert in instructional practice and was applying his knowledge earnestly in an effort to give kids the best possible instruction. I’ve certainly been in plenty of classrooms where the very things he noted as needing attention were exactly what I would have suggested myself to pump the lesson up to a higher level of effectiveness. And I don’t know what will happen with my friend – whether she’ll decide to leave the classroom or find a way to continue to “change lives.” The next steps are for her and her principal to work out.
But this does, perhaps, speak to the larger issue of teacher evaluation and its role in improving student performance through instructional excellence. We need to keep our teachers, most of them anyway, with the richness found in the variety of personalities, styles, and experiences they bring to the classroom. Assuming that it is possible to articulate teaching standards as practices that leverage the time teachers have with students, certainly we should be as considerate in our measurement of those standards as we need to be in assessing student acquisition of the Common Core. We need to make those practices visible to teachers in ways that do not crush spirits and that are accompanied by high quality professional development in ways that illustrate how teaching standards support the learning we all want to see for students.
Harriette Thurber Rasmussen is a coach and partner with Abeo School Change.
No comments:
Post a Comment