Teacher Evaluation

Teacher evaluations are used to measure teacher performance and success. Evaluations vary by state, county, district, and school. Most states have a type of evaluation process that is required to be used in the public school systems. Private schools and charter schools often have a little bit more flexibility with this. In this blog post, I am going to compare two different teacher evaluation systems. The first is the evaluation system shown in the Teaching Channel video regarding the new teacher evaluations at Herricks High School in Long Island, New York. The video can be found here.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/preparing-for-formal-observations

The second system is the evaluation system used in the state of North Carolina. I am familiar with this system because I spent my first year teaching in a public middle school in North Carolina.

Herricks High School's system for evaluation seemed to be very effective and informative. The evaluator described that the new teacher would be observed four times throughout the school year. Each evaluation has three parts: a pre-observation meeting, a formal observation, and a post observation meeting. Both the teacher and the evaluator contributed to the conversation and were able to discuss the lesson before the new teacher was observed. This gave the evaluator some background on what she would be seeing and what she should look for. During the evaluation, the new teacher was able to be more at ease since she had already had a good conversation with her evaluator. After the lesson, the two teachers met and the post-observation meeting gave the new teacher an opportunity to reflect on her teaching and receive great feedback. She had an opportunity to dispute anything she did not agree with and to ask questions. The entire process felt very real. It wasn't just a form that was filled out and turned into a higher-up official. Instead, the process was a productive conversation that would give the new teacher valuable feedback that she could use to improve her teaching practices.

The evaluation system in North Carolina that I was exposed to was much more formal and calculated. I didn't have an opportunity to meet with my evaluator before the meeting. The evaluator in North Carolina is typically the principal of the school instead of a teacher who teaches the same subject area as the newer teacher. The evaluation form for North Carolina is broken down into many categories, and the teacher is scored as one of the following: Developing, Proficient, Accomplished, Distinguished, or Not Demonstrated. A teacher must meet each of the categories in the section to be given that score. For example, if a teacher meets everything in the developing section, and two out of three in the proficient section, she will be scored as developing. In order to be "proficient" she must meet all three areas in proficient.

In some ways, I think this is a great system. It is is consistent and it really does include all of the elements of a successful teacher. On the other hand, there is little room for discussion and for input that will actually help the teacher to grow. Each time I was evaluated, I felt as if I had no idea what to do next. I didn't know what my "next steps" were because the evaluator was too busy circling categories to make notes on my actual teaching. I realize that some rubric must exist, but I also think that personalized feedback is an important part of the evaluation process.

To conclude, I would like to include the categories in which I believe a teacher should be evaluated:

1. Leadership in the Classroom and in the School
2. Mastery of Content Area
3. Ability to Differentiate and Meet Student Needs
4. Maintaining a Positive Classroom Climate
5. Planning, Preparation, and Instruction

Pre-Assessment for Differentiation

Pre-assessments are an essential component of teaching effectively. As a math teacher, I find pre-assessments to be especially helpful when planning for instruction. I need to assess where my students are at before I can dive in and begin teaching new content. Mathematics material continually builds on previously learned material, so without a pre-assessment, I could be setting my students up for failure. 

With this assignment, I chose to focus on a topic that I would typically teach a few months into the year in pre-algebra. The topic is solving equations with one variable. I decided to create a ten question Kahoot quiz.  Click this link to access the Kahoot I created for a pre-assessment. This quiz will allow me to quickly and effectively assess student understanding. I will be able to gauge how well students remember how to solve equations. From there, I will be able to accurately group students into one of three groups. 

The first group will be reserved for students who miss 0-2 questions on the pre-assessment. These will be my students who really have a strong understanding of the material already, and are ready to move on and learn more. These students will be working in partners and independently. Since they have demonstrated that they understand the pre-assessment material, they will be focusing on furthering their understanding and even creating their own Kahoot with their own questions. 

The second group will be for students who miss 3-4 questions on the pre-assessment. These students will likely remember how to solve equations, but need to brush up on their skills before moving on. After working in groups on problems similar to what was seen on the pre-assessment, these students will retake the Kahoot. Assuming they have mastered the material at this point, they will begin working with a partner on enrichment problems. They will use algebra tiles to assist them in their problem solving and to gain a deeper understanding of how equations work. As a final assessment, they will be taking an enriched version of the Kahoot with more challenging problems. 

Finally, my lowest group and the group that needs the most intervention will be the students who miss 5 or more questions on the Kahoot. These students will need one-on-one and group intervention to relearn the material before moving on. They will work with the teacher in a small group to learn how to solve one variable equations. After relearning the content and practicing on their own, students will retake the original Kahoot. From there, they will work with a partner and with algebra tiles to get more practice solving equations. Then, they will retake the Kahoot one last time to demonstrate mastery. If at any time the students in this group seem to have mastered the content, they can be moved into the mid-level group.

I created a chart to display all of the strategies and assessments I plan to use. Here is the link to my Lucid Chart. You can also view it below.

References: 


Pendergrass, E. (2013). Differentiation: It Starts with Pre-Assessment. Educational Leadership, 73 (4). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/dec13/vol71/num04/Differentiation@_It_Starts_with_Pre-Assessment.aspx

High Stakes Assessments

In our public school systems in the United States, high stakes testing has become a huge topic of conversation and debate. Districts, states, and even the federal government use state tests like the STAR exam or the North Carolina EOG exams to determine which teachers will get raises and how much funding the school will receive. These scores can have great implications on students, teachers, schools, and districts. During my past few years of teaching, I have had an interesting experience with high stakes testing. During my first year teaching, I taught in a Title 1 public school in rural North Carolina where high stakes testing were constantly at the forefront of my mind. After that, I moved to California and had a polar opposite experience working in a private college prep school in San Diego that is not required to use state exams. I have chosen to compare and contrast the effects of high stakes testing, and lack thereof, at these two very different schools.

During my time in North Carolina, I will admit that I often taught to the test. It is a phrase all educators have heard, and we don't like to admit to it. As a first year teacher at E.E. Smith Middle School, I felt a lot of pressure to make sure that my students passed the state exam. The school I worked out overly emphasized testing. Students were required to take benchmark tests six times per year, and these scores were poured over at staff meetings. Every teacher was brutally aware of their own scores and their fellow teachers' scores. I felt an immense amount of pressure as did my students. I issued many tests and quizzes in class to try to prepare them for these high stakes tests. Many hours were spent testing and preparing for taking the test. In an ideal world, I would have loved to have the opportunity to spend more time on project based learning and non-traditional assessments. Though I do think that high stakes tests are valuable and necessary to some degree, they begin to lose some steam when they are overused and over emphasized. Once February came around, it seemed that all we talked about in class was preparing for the 8th grade math EOG (end of grade) exam. The students were stressed about passing and I was stressed about preparing them. Our school did not have a strong track record and most of my students were performing below grade level. High stakes tests don't show student growth, and I was concerned that my students would be disheartened by their scores and I would be embarrassed as well. Math and Language Arts teachers alike were always on edge about EOG exams, and students were frustrated with the pressure.

The school I currently teach at could not be more different that E.E. Smith. Pacific Ridge School is a private 7th through 12th grade school that is nontraditional in many ways. Teachers have a great deal of freedom in how they teach their content, and standardized tests do not exist. Being a private school, we do not have to subscribe to the state standards. When I first began working at Pacific Ridge, I wondered how students would be motivated without a test at the end of the year or the grading period to hold over their heads. I was so used to the idea of preparing students for a high stakes test that I didn't even know where to begin with my lessons. I quickly realized what a privilege it was to simply be able to teach my content and have freedom to use creative assessments rather than high stakes tests. Students were more engaged and actually enjoyed assessments to some degree. I still am at times surprised by the stark difference in student moral. Of course, these students will one day take part in high stakes testing like the SAT to get into college, but it is not an immediate concern for my middle school students. I have found that the overall moral and motivation is much higher when students are excited about a project or a creative way to demonstrate their learning. I still use chapter tests on a regular basis, but these just let me know I am teaching them what they need to know and they are understanding the material. There is much less pressure to get every single student to perform at the same standard. Instead, there is a big focus on growth and on the whole student and the whole picture, not just their test score.