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1. Deeply understand the model
2. Learn about the role of student achievement
3. Find your professional voice
Everyone—that means everyone—in the system needs to fully understand the evaluative criteria and rubrics that will be used to assess practice. It is not uncommon for districts to focus training on supervisors or a handful of teachers who are expected to inform their colleagues. It is not sufficient to simply select a model (whether it is Danielson, Marshall, Marzano, etc.) and have an in-service day; all teachers and administrators must learn the model and the rubrics deeply enough to apply them in practice. Whether using Webb’s Depth of Knowledge or Bloom’s Taxonomy, applying concepts is a higher-level activity. Therefore, it is not enough to have basic recall of the model and rubrics. It must be something all participants can make meaning with, and relate to, their complex work.
Student learning objectives (SLOs) should be one of the most teacher-driven aspects of the evaluation system. According to Maine law, teachers have the ability to collaborate and develop SLOs. SLOs are meant to reflect the growth and performance of a specific group of students, based on their particular abilities and academic needs. It is inappropriate to set goals that are district-, school-, or even department-wide, since such goals would not reflect the needs of the students for whom a teacher is responsible. There are two important steps within the SLO process that prove to be challenging; the first involves assessment. The law defines multiple measures as both formal and informal measures and includes in the definition examples of performance assessments, portfolio projects, problem-solving protocols, and teacher-based assessments. These should not be overlooked in favor of standardized or published assessments, particularly if those do not accurately reflect the curriculum being taught throughout the year. The second step relates to developing baseline information. Since it is important to have an accurate understanding of students in order to develop meaningful goals, a simple pretest given the first week of school often yields insufficient information for setting an appropriate goal. Rather, a collection of information, including grades in past classes, assessments of prerequisite skills, scores on assessments in late September and October, some measure of student engagement including homework completion, class participation, and attendance might all be used to develop goals for a group of students. Best practice would indicate collecting data from multiple sources in order to set goals for students that are both ambitious and achievable.
We know our students deserve great teachers. Teachers and school leaders deserve a system designed to foster greatness. This can only be accomplished with a collaborative effort to create systems of transparency and fairness. The purpose of teacher evaluation models is to provide common vocabulary and expectations that put a focus on high quality instruction— highlighting it when it’s observed and supporting it when it needs improvement. Teachers and school leaders must participate in dialogues for learning. This means that the data gathered during an observation or a teacher portfolio of behindthe-scenes work are opportunities to have meaningful conversations about teaching—and not just as fodder for a final “score.” Working together, we can make the evaluation process work for us, and more importantly, for our students.
Crowdsource Your Teaching The idea of crowdsourcing, asking for help or money from an online community, isn’t new. It’s gained attention recently with major news stories having a crowdsource or crowdfunding angle—think of the online ask for the public to pitch in and pay for the Patriots’ ‘Deflategate’ fine. Now, think of how crowdsourcing can help teaching. Members of the Westbrook Education Association are piloting a program that allows teachers to leverage the collective insight of teachers from around the world by connecting classrooms through video and the internet.
"I really think this could revolutionize teacher evaluation and would be an awesome benefit that we could offer our members,” said Shannon Belt, Westbrook EA President. Belt researched the program, called ImproveClass, and the local association is paying for the pilot project for its members. Here’s how it works: teachers record themselves teaching a lesson with a phone or iPad, upload the video to the ImproveClass website, and then ask for feedback from the online community. The video is shared within a community of the same kind of teacher (math to math, for example) and the submitting teacher receives
an email alerting him/her someone has something to say about the video. Through email, both teachers now have the opportunity to have an open conversation about the lesson and ways to improve. ImproveClass cofounder Bradley Krugh says the idea came out of the thought—how can you really provide honest feedback to a colleague without consequence. “We think there is additive feedback when you open it up to this network in an anonymous way. It’s a safe environment that is outside of what is considered a performance review,” said Krugh. For more information, click here. June 2015 • www.maineea.org
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