Teacher Evaluations

As something of a refurbished librarian turned computer skills teacher, the process of teacher evaluations will be relatively new to me. I embrace it gingerly and with a sense of trepidation! But in learning more about this process, it has become clear that this really  is - or should be - much more a part of the learning process for teachers - an opportunity to gain insight and reflect on what we are doing, and how well it is working. Or not.

Although i have been teaching for a several years, I have had only one observation that I can recall. Presumably, I have not had others because  I am primarily a librarian. Teaching IT skills was something I was asked to do to fill in since we are a small school, and could not afford additional teachers. But having been forged in the fire, I have learned quite a bit and have developed approaches to teaching that seem to have worked for me, for the most part.

In the coming weeks and months, however, as I step into my Clinical Practice, I will be experience a number of observations. In reflecting on the materials provided for this topic, I have analyzed some current teacher evaluation systems, and I’ve identified some  elements which I  think would be important points of focus during my evaluations.

The National Educators Association (NEA) has highlighted six key principles that must serve as the foundation for developing or reforming any teacher assessment and evaluation system (Teacher Assessment and Evaluation, NEA, 2010):

1. Safe and open collaboration is necessary.
2. Measures of teacher performance should be based on multiple ratings and clear teaching standards.
3. Evaluation systems must be integrated with curricular standards, professional development activities, targeted support, and human capital decisions.
4. Validated evaluation measures are essential.
5. Teachers’ input in determining performance and learning outcomes should be part of the evaluation process.
6. Assessment and evaluation systems need to be jointly created or designed, with local teacher association involvement.

They go on to define effective teaching by providing numerous examples definitions of effective teachers and teaching, and outlining their ten principles that “describe the essential knowledge, skills, and support that teachers must have in order to be effective.”

They go on to discuss Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC): Model Core Teaching Standards which outlines their are ten model core teaching standards:.

1. Learner Development.
2. Learning Differences.
3. Learning Environments.
4. Content Knowledge.
5. Application of Content.
6. Assessment.
7. Planning for Instruction.
8. Instructional Strategies.
9. Professional Learning and Ethical Practice.
10. Leadership and Collaboration.

In fact there is a lot that is similar between the two systems. As we can see there is some overlap in these principles, such as the emphasis on collaboration, standards based assessment of the teacher, and the emphasis on integration of evaluation with curricular standards, and the emphasis on teacher content knowledge, clear and actionable feedback based on comprehensive, transparent standards, and the use of instructional strategies.

From my perspective the most important points of evaluation for teachers are:

1. Evaluation and observation process that is a collaborative activity where the mentor and student teacher are able to work side by dies to develop the strengths of each individual teacher. Learning should also include peers and go beyond the mentor trainee relationship.
2. Common, clearly stated standards must be shared prior to evaluation, and should be  very clearly stated, between the mentor and the teacher candidate. When the standards as clear, it is much more likely that they will be met.
3. Teachers’ input in determining performance and learning outcomes should be part of the evaluation process.
4. Assessment and evaluation systems need to be jointly created or designed, with local teacher association involvement.
5. Planning for Instruction and Instructional Strategies should be the meat of the evaluation process, as well as the most important points for collaborative learning.

All in all, there are many ways one may look at teacher evaluation. But what is most important is that the teacher is reflective. It is essential that the teacher trainee have very clear standards that they will be evaluated on. And finally, is vital that the teacher trainee receive good, clear, honest and routine feedback in order to foster deeper understanding and growth. For as is said by the NEA in their report Teacher Evaluation and Assessment: Ready, Set, Go  “it is important to ‘resist pressures to reduce the definition of effective teaching to a single score obtained on an observation instrument or through a value-added model’ Comprehensive evaluation systems must contain many lenses for looking at teachers’ abilities to promote student learning.”

Pre-Assessment in 6th Grade Computer Skills

As a computer skills teacher, my main goal is to develop students who are confident with using technology, develop a sense of curiosity and a spirit of exploration when it comes to using technology. My goal, as is the goal set by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standard 1, "Empowered Learner" is that student are then able to channel these energies into effective self-directed learning strategies, that they are able to reflect on their learning, contribute to meaningful discussion about their learning, and ultimately, to be active, progressive, and innovative users and adapters of new technologies in order to produce creative, meaningful, informative  products of their own.

Middle school is the perfect launchpad for developing this kind of attitude and ability, since students in this age group are, for the most part, either already very curious and interested in technology  or they are timid and apprehensive about it. In both cases, a computer skills class that encourages the enthusiastic, and helps the more timid to feel confident about trying new things, is going to be most effective. But in order to properly know who these students are and what their skills sets are, it is vital to perform a per-assessment to identify their unique set of strengths and weaknesses.

For my sixth grade class, as for all of my middle school students, I have used a few pre-assessment tools to help me understand my students better.

Checklist
My first per-assessment tool is a complete skills checklist. It is provided in an interactive PDF format, and students are able to self-asses using the list, checking off each item that they are familiar with, in a systematic manner.
 

Quizlet 
 A second level of assessment involves students looking at a specific aspect of the overall grand checklist. In this example, my sixth graders are asked to identify parts of a computer. I use Quizlet which provides them the ability to do this using a game, as well as enabling them to study and learn the parts using flashcards and other learning tools. This enables me to get a quick fix on where they are on a specific aspect of their computer technology skills, while also enabling them to learn the skills.



Word Document Activity 
A third measure of per-assessment enables me to measure their abilities for myself. I provide them a specific activity, such as  "Letter to My Future Self" in which students are asked to write a letter to themselves, 10 years into the future. At that time they will have finished high school, will be in college, and figuring out what to do with their lives. In this activity, students are to use Microsoft Word to write the letter, and are given a specific set of formatting rules for crafting the letter.  They will have to demonstrate that they know how to do each of the specific skills (indenting a paragraph, centering a title, changing fonts, inserting images, etc. ). 

High Stakes Testing in the International Schools Arena

I've been trying to find a my voice on the issue of High Stakes Assessments, for quite a while, now.
I found inspiration in recent days, when all the world's attentions are focused on this High Stakes Election. But there are similarities -- the outcome of one can have dramatic impacts on our future - for good or ill. Regardless of a host of variables that may conceivably confound the result, ones fate, it would seem, rests squarely upon this one day, this one test or ballot, and the outcome at the end of it. But, I would say, that's not entirely so.

Whether its an election or a High Stakes Test, like the SAT, for example, there is always the counterbalance of free will, self determination, and the kindness of strangers.

The subject of high stakes testing has been on the hot seat, particularly over the past 15 years or so,  since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCBL) laws. These laws, which were introduced as an education-reform bill in 2001, were signed into law by President George W. Bush on Jan. 8, 2002, and represented the most sweeping change in education law since the the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, that was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson.  The NCBL imposed national and state level norms of testing on students across the United States. Their stated intention was to try to raise the bar in terms of academic expectations, hold teachers accountable for their students' learning, and to bring all students to a same level of high performance.

However, in practice, it did not necessarily meet these goals. In practice there were many unintended consequences.

Over the years, the laws and their insistence on high stakes testing led to to bitter debates about the cultural biases of such tests, the potential of using them unfairly to penalize and control teachers, and to unfairly discriminate against students of different categories. The laws and their emphasis on high stakes testing results were criticized for forcing teachers to "teach to the test," rather than to engage and instruct children. Last year, Barack Obama signed a new law into place that was meant to address some of these concerns, called the  Every Student Succeeds Act.   

As a student of education, coming from years as a librarian and information professional in the states, and now working for the last nearly ten years, in an international school in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa, with a population of students who come from countries around the world, I am looking at this  question through my own particular lens.

As a librarian, I am both a champion of intellectual rigor, and of free expression. As an educator, while I am obviously concerned with similar issues, my focus is more individualized, and centered on the unique strengths and talents of each child, and upon how I can differentiate, scaffold, and otherwise assist each child in reaching his or her potential. As a teacher in a school like ours, I find myself questioning the place of High Assessment Assessments for our students, when the students come from such varied backgrounds, language abilities, and test taking experiences.

At our school, about a third of the students are English language learners, and all of our students are coming from school systems that are based in one of three philosophical positions, that are at odds with one another -- one third from European countries, particularly the Netherlands and Belgium where education systems are very to extremely student centered;  another third from countries that are moderately to extremely test centered such as those the Middle Est countries like Lebanon and France and other Francophone countries, like Cote d'Ivoire and Cameroon, which follow the French educational system, to those from Asian countries such as Korea, Vietnam, China, India; and finally there are those students who come from moderately to extremely traditional teacher centered systems, such as the more moderate American, and the more extreme British school systems, as can be found in South Africa and Ghana. How is it possible to use high stakes assessment in any meaningful way, when our students are coming from such diversity?

Well, we are trying. In this richly diverse setting we're applying an American curriculum and American styled approach to education - including the use of our standardized assessment - the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP).

The MAP test provides a very detailed analysis of students' progress, over time, and provides actionable data about where each child stands in relation to other students in their district, and around the world - and in relation to his or her own learning path. We are asked to use the results of the MAP results to determine whether or not students may be accepted into our school, and if so, at what grade level they are to be placed.  Students are tested at least twice a year, and every other year, there is a third, mid year assessment as well. This enables us to measure academic growth throughout the school year and from year to year in reading and math. 

Such a test can be a wonderful tool - it helps us to really see into the specific strengths and weaknesses of each student, therefore helping teachers to make strategic decisions about what to address with each student. However, when we look at our scores in comparison to other benchmarks -- other test takers throughout the world, for instance, our school's unique characteristics come in to play. With high turn over every year  of both teachers (our overseas teachers change every two or three years) and students (many students leave, many more new students join us each year) how we can we ever have true measures of our school progress, grade performance, or development over time? With so many students at various levels of language proficiency, how can our scores ever be counted on to give us an accurate reflection of their learning?  And with large numbers of students coming from places where testing is never done,  as well as from places where students may have been taking tests since the first grade, and pressure to succeed is extremely high, how can we be sure that the test results are not skewed and impacted by degrees of test taking ability? 

In cases like this it is easy to see the strength and weaknesses of high stakes testing. In our case, they are best used for prescription, with regard to strategic teaching. Beyond that, there are too many unknowns to make them trustworthy. 

So. what does that have to do with the High Stakes Election? Well, not much in reality.  

But we can we regard the outcome of this High Stakes Election result and wonder and debate how it will impact on our society and our individual lives. Depending on your position, your expectations may be rosy or quite bleak. But will the results of this one election - and our one test - have any lasting impact on  our individual long range future? Hard to say. Maybe, Maybe not. There are always the counterbalance of free will, self determination, and the kindness of strangers.

But, perhaps we can learn something of value from it, even if not exactly what we intended.   
For just as our MAP tests' greatest value may not be it's ability to predict the future, but in the diagnostic story that it begins to reveal about  each individual child, and where he or she is coming from,  so might the value of this high stakes  election rest mainly in the diagnostic story it begins to reveal about our society. By offering a glimpse into the workings of our nations' collective conscience,  with regard to a host of different factors,  perhaps this election  can teach us more about where we are coming from - and how far we have to go - than it does about whether or not we will every actually get there.