Peter Greene attended the Network for Public Education’s third annual conference in Raleigh, where NPE introduced a new framework for teacher evaluation.
In this post, he describes an approach to teacher evaluation based on what teachers (teachers!) believe will work best in identifying teachers’ strengths and needs.
Here are the recommendations, in Peter’s words. Take his advice and read the report:
The report makes six recommendations.
1) Stop using student test scores for teacher evaluation. Absolutely.
2) Top-down collaboration is an oxymoron. Don’t tie mandated and micromanaged teacher collaboration to evaluation.
3) The observation process should focus on reflection and dialogue as tools for improvement. One of my favorite lines in the report– The result should be a narrative, not a number.
4) Less paperwork. This is not just a teacher problem. My administrators essentially have to stop doing all their other work for several weeks out of the year just to get their evaluation and observation paperwork done. Forms and forms and forms and forms for me, and ten times that many for them. Again– do you want us to do our job, or do a bunch of paperwork about what we would be doing for our job if we weren’t busy with the paperwork.
5) Take a good hard look at how evaluation systems are affecting veteran teachers and teachers of color.
6) Burn down the entire professional development system. Okay, that’s my recommendation. NPE is more restrained– decouple PD from the evaluation system and attach it to things that actually help teachers do their jobs.
That’s the basic outline. There are more details and there are, most of all, actual quotes from actual teachers. I have read so many “reports” and “white papers” and “policy briefs” covering many aspects of education policy over the last few years, and the appearance of a teacher voice is rarer than Donald Trump having a good hair day and displaying humility at the same time. That alone makes this report valuable and useful. I recommend you read the whole thing.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a retired teacher and administrator it is clear Principals simply don’t have enough time to truly assess and support teachers based on that assessment.
However, there are many retired teachers that would be available to do the job right. I worked for a 501c3 that assessed and mentored first year teachers. I had plenty of time to provide an accurate assessment and, as a mentor, plenty of time to follow through with necessary support. And I was much cheaper than hiring more administrators.
And of utmost importance, I had no political agenda.
“A vision for the future”
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Cross posted Peter’s post at oped
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/CURMUDGUCATION-NPE-Teach-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Advice_Dialogue_Education_Evaluation-160427-977.html#comment594092
with two links back to this site.
One, On Utican’s report, and the other on your piece on ageism
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I enjoyed reading this and the NPE report as well. Learnt a lot.
If the recommendation for teacher evaluation is a narrative, can we expect a similar recommendation for student evaluation as well?
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What goes around, comes around! I had narrative evaluations for my entire career. They were done by local administrators, and the narratives included a brief summary of the lesson, the objectives, activities, classroom management, and assessment. This form of evaluation is much more meaningful and relevant than some algorithm spewing data from a computer based on test scores.
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Got to watch those narratives, too! I came into teaching again after an extended break for raising kids. Since I had worked in the system part time as a paraprofessional and part time teacher, I did not receive the mentoring of a first year teacher. Somewhere in that induction I suspect they went over the evaluation procedure and maybe even explained how to read the implied narrative. If I had had that training, I might have noticed how the final report changed. It read the same but used a few key expressions that indicated a change in how I was viewed. I never quite saw it and was blindsided when I was not allowed to interview for a permanent position even though I had taught for major portions of three school years.
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Somewhat offtopic, but I think it’s quite a contrast to the reformer’s vision on mass education that at all the French universities I have seen, at the end of the year, each student is evaluated in each subject by the whole department hosting the subject.
So after the exams are over, the math department gets together and they discuss every single calculus student, and arrive to a consensus about what grade the student deserves.
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Máté wrote:
“So after the exams are over, the math department gets together and they discuss every single calculus student, and arrive to a consensus about what grade the student deserves.”
And that is well and good I suppose but it still falls into Wilson’s Judge frame of reference for assessing which is notorious for not being a “reliable” method of evaluating student work. Even with a “panel of judges” such as the French system, issues of reliability are still there.
I’d be okay with a similar set up only if the student has a chance to be part of the process. Yes, I understand the intimidation factor but if the students have participated in such a process every year and are familiar with it then that factor would be lessened.
What I am advocating for (hey here’s that “solution”-ha ha originally I misspelled it “soulution”-that folks always admonish those who critique to come up with) is Wilson’s Responsive frame of evaluation/assessing wherein the student and teacher use the assessment process as a guide to more/better learning and not as a statement/judgement. Think of medical residencies or skilled craftsman apprenticeships. And yes we have more than enough wealth in this country to afford the staff to do so.
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I agree with Wilson, and I remember of your posts about it. The point about the French system is that students can get verbal feedback besides the grades.
In my opinion, ranking students )hence grading them) is a basic error since it gives the impression that they are participating in some kind of race. On the other hand, it’s been part of student evaluation for so long that it’s not clear if students could be motivated to learn without any ranking.
We’d need research on that—starting with a class of first graders. One thing for sure, by the time kids get to the university, they won’t study without the pressure of tests and they expect to be rewarded with grades for their good effort.
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“. . . it’s not clear if students could be motivated to learn without any ranking.”
If that ranking causes harm to students and I’m talking K-12 and know that it does then why do we continue the practice?? Where is the justice in continuing a practice that is error filled and invalid and that we know is harmful to students. As far as I’m concerned grading, ranking students should be ceased immediately-no need for any research, the harms are quite well known.
“One thing for sure, by the time kids get to the university, they won’t study without the pressure of tests and they expect to be rewarded with grades for their good effort.”
And that my friend is an extremely sad statement of affairs in public education. I am literally shaking my head at the thought.
And the question that never gets asked: What about those students who aren’t great “grade” players who are denied the opportunity to pursue their dreams???
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“And that my friend is an extremely sad statement of affairs in public education. I am literally shaking my head at the thought.”
Actually, the news is probably worse: I used to teach a course for the “best high school students in Memphis”. They were 16-17 year olds. And it was supposed to be a pressure free, fun course. But after two weeks, the kids started slacking off since they had many other courses where they had to do mandatory work so they could do well on tests. So halfway through the semester, I started giving them quizzes, and then a test. Suddenly, they studied. But only to the test, and they kept asking “is this going to be on the test?”.
So we have to start any experiments in first grade.
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