Teacher Evaluation

(Image found using Creative Commons, just to test it out! :) )

    Ultimately, if there was a perfect solution to the ongoing debate of evaluating teachers, it would likely have been posed if not already implemented.  The fact that there are many opinions and ideas of the “best” way to evaluate, each one plagued with inadequacies and further questions, suggests that there is no easy way to tackle this issue.  For example, take the current situation surrounding standardized text scores as a means of measuring a teacher’s performance.  What if the student is not a good test-taker?  Does the test count for the student in any way?  If not, how do we know they are giving their best effort?  Does the test content align with the standards and goals of the teacher’s subject, or is he/she forced to spend time “teaching what will be on the test”?  Does a good score on the test indicate that a student has grown and developed over the course of the year?  This method, as I know many teachers have said and will continue to say, is flawed.

    Before we can evaluate a teacher, though, we need to decide what it is that we are trying to evaluate.  What result would indicate that a teacher is “doing their job well”?  High test scores?  High rates of graduation?  Engaged and productive students?  Happy parents?  To me, the trouble with choosing one single method of evaluation is that it only produces one result that is not representative of the larger picture.

    While I can’t say that I have a solution to this, I think could be a step in the right direction would be incorporating a few (or even several) different assessments into a sort of teacher portfolio or profile.  Some things that could be included might be: evaluations from students in each class, peer reviews (from other teachers within the same department), administrator evaluations, a self-reflection done every quarter/semester/year, surveys or written comments from parents at the end of the each semester/year, and hey -- maybe even standardized test scores.  If those standardized test scores aren’t at the ideal level, there is more material in the portfolio to reference to determine if this is really the result of poor teaching, or something else.  This way, no one particular thing would be representative of a teacher’s overall performance.  The portfolio helps to illustrate that bigger picture.

    That’s just one more idea to add to the fray, anyway.