Teacher Evaluation
Cory Orman
Module 6 Unit 4 Activity 3
For most teachers, there are two things that can make them extremely nervous. One, parent-teacher conferences and two, teacher evaluations. Last week we discussed parent-teacher conferences. We discussed how to address parents when their child is performing below standards, performing below student's capability, and misbehaving in class. This time can be very nerve racking for teachers and is one area that I am personally a little anxious about.
Teacher Evaluations are another time when many teachers especially young teachers get can become tense. These evaluations could possibly be the difference between you having or not having a job the following year. Personally, I feel a little more nervous about the parent teacher conferences but once I’m in the moment I’m sure that I will feel just as uneasy about the teacher evaluations.
Some tips to help with teacher evaluations are:
Pre-Observation
- request a face to face pre-observation meeting
- share information about the class dynamics
- explain the objectives of the lesson
- ask about observation criteria
Observation
- have all materials prepared and ready to go
- always prepare a backup plan
Post-Observation
- Explain teaching decisions
- explain unexpected changes
- be self-reflective & open to criticism
- teachers that are the most successful are those that are the most self-reflective
- if you do not agree with the assessment you should let the observer know immediately.
Minnesota Teacher Evaluation
My wife is licensed in Minnesota and so I looked up some of the teacher evaluations in Minnesota. I liked the way that MN evaluates its teachers. Minnesota evaluates their teachers on four domains.
- Planning
- Aligns learning targets with standards and student data inform planning
- Uses content, resources and student knowledge to design coherent instruction
- Plans for assessment and differentiation
- Environment
- Creates a respectful classroom culture of trust, safety and high expectations
- Establishes and maintains clear expectations for classroom and behavior management
- Instruction
- Communicates learning targets and content effectively
- Facilitates activities and discussions that promote high cognitive engagement
- Uses varied assessment techniques to advance student learning
- Professionalism
- Reflects on teaching practice
- Engages in professional development
- Maintains professional responsibilities and communicates with families
Each one of these domains and their subcategories are evaluated in a 4 tier performance rating.
‘Rookie’ teachers in Minnesota are evaluated over a three-year span. Their final assessment will be upon completing that third year. The way that teachers evaluations are weighted looks like this -
It is a little hard to read, but this is an outline of what the three years will look like.
Colorado Teacher Evaluation
Another state that I looked at was Colorado. Colorado has six quality standards.
Colorado Standards:
Quality Standards I -
- Teachers demonstrate mastery of and pedagogical expertise in the content they teach.
Quality Standards II -
- Teachers establish a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment for a diverse population of students.
Quality Standards III -
- Teachers plan and deliver effective instruction and create an environment that facilitates learning for their students.
Quality Standards IV -
- Teachers reflect on their practice.
Quality Standards V -
- Teachers demonstrate leadership.
Quality Standards VI -
- Teachers take responsibility for student academic growth.
Colorado separates their evaluation into 5 years.
Their evaluation process follows a nine-step process.
After looking at these two states, I would really like to be an educator in either one of these systems. Both evaluation processes span over multiple years and are accumulative. I really like that they allow a chance for improvement. As teachers, we are always growing and learning how to be more effective educators. Any sort of evaluation that is weighted predominantly one way can become bias and not always depict an effective evaluation. Both of these states take a more balanced approach and their evaluations of teachers are not predicated on one thing.
