The Teacher Evaluation Process

According to Doe (2014) and Darling-Hammond (2012), the most common types of Teacher Evaluations and their purpose include:

-Classroom Observation: provides information about classroom behaviors, can be used across the curriculum areas, both formative and summative information and uses.

-Instructional Artifact (s): measure of instructional level, often practical and possible for teachers to gather

-Teacher Portfolio: comprehensive, used in all disciplines/fields of study, highly credible, tool for teacher reflection and growth

-Teacher self-report/evaluation measure: measure unobservable aspects of teaching, creates a unique perspective of teacher, easily done, cost-efficient and can collect a lot of data at once.

-Student Survey: perspective of students, formative and summative information

-Value Added Model: doesn't require classroom observations, best used to identify outstanding teachers, should be used with caution

-Peer Assistance and Review: provides mentorship, formative insights and goal setting.

Teacher Quality: "[A] bundle of personal traits, skills and understandings an individual brings to teaching, including dispositions to behave in certain ways" (Darling-Hammond, i).

Teaching Quality: "[R]efers to strong instruction that enables a wide range of students to learn. Teaching quality is in part a function of teacher quality...but it is also strongly influenced by the context of instruction" (Darling-Hammond, i).

Collective Bargaining: The process that a district and a union that represents teachers agree to a contract that details work hours, work conditions, salary, benefits, and processes to handle grievances. This contract may "other duties as assigned". school initiatives, or additional state laws governing teachers. These contracts are legally binding (Sawchuck, 58).

"Last In, First Out" (LIFO): To determine layoff or over-staff decisions, many states use seniority as a primary method to determine order for dismissal (Sawchuck, 58).

See State Facts from

Thomsen, Jennifer. (2014 May). A closer look: Teacher evaluations and reduction-in-force policies. Education Commission of the States. 1-5. Retrieved from http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/01/12/43/11243.pdf

Teacher Observations: Many teacher evaluation systems use classroom observations as part of the process. Usually, this includes being observed several times throughout the year. Observations may be in person, or through video, formal or informal. Some include pre and post observation conferences. Depending on the state or district, principals and administrators usually conduct the teacher observations, while some include other teachers, instructional coaches or independent consultants in the observation and evaluation process (Sawchuck, 58).

Teacher Tenure: When a teacher completes his or her state's "probationary" time period successfully, they may receive a status known as tenure. The typical probationary period is ten years. Once a teacher reaches tenure, firing said teacher can only happen due to not meeting a standard found in the state law. In addition, due-process procedures need to be followed to remove a tenured teacher and these often differ from state to state and because of misconduct versus poor performance (Sawchuck, 58).

See State Facts from

Thomsen, Jennifer. (2014 May). A closer look: Teacher evaluations and reduction-in-force policies. Education Commission of the States. 1-5. Retrieved from http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/01/12/43/11243.pdf

Value Added Model (VAM): Is a statistical method of analyzing growth in student test scores to estimate how much a teacher has contributed to growth in student achievement. VAMs should take into consideration gains students make based on past performance, as well as control for peer characteristics, background, poverty, language proficiency, and family education level (Sawchuck, 58).

"Key trends in reduction-in-force policies

- 37 states have laws that guide reduction-in-force decisions.

- In 2012, 36 states had such laws.

-11 states require performance, as measured by teacher evaluations, be considered as a primary factor by districts making reductions in force: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. In addition, Washington has added this requirement in law effective 2015-16.

-In 2012, the total number was 10.

-10 states explicitly prohibit the use of tenure or seniority in making decisions about layoffs: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Utah and Virginia. In 2012, only five states – AZ, FL, ID, MI and UT – had such prohibitions in law"

(Thomsen, 1).

Highly Effective Teacher: Student growth is more than 1 year (usually 1 1/2 years)

Effective Teacher: Student growth is 1 year

Ineffective Teacher: Student growth is less than 1 year (usually marked as 6 months)

(Sawchuck, 2016).

Key Findings:

-VAM are currently under scrutiny and review. All research suggested their use can have limited effectiveness depending on how the information is used, recognizing limitations and using the additional types of data/observations and artifacts to "round out" the evaluation (Strauss, 2016).

-Using multiple tools for teacher assessment prove critical for teacher growth and success, as well as reliable data for evaluative purposes (Darling-Hammond, 2012) and (Sawchuck, 2015).

-Training administration, teachers and reviewers on Teacher standards and observables provides greatest success in teacher growth and student gains (Goe, 2014).

-Teacher evaluations should be used for growth and gains in student success (Taylor, 2012), (Camera, 2016), (Darling-Hammond, 2012) and (Goe, 2014).

Teacher evaluations provide critical and essential formative and summative information to help students grow and create gains in student achievement. With this in mind, these next steps/questions need to be researched and evaluated.

1) Since VAMs continue to grow in use and scrutiny, Is there a way to account for variables in student achievement or tailor the data to identify and/or remove these?

2) Multiple types of assessments for teachers exist. What types of assessments yield the best results for student achievement and teacher growth?

3) In order for any teacher evaluation system to be effective, time, professional development and mentorships continue to show high indications of teacher and student success. What is the ideal time-frame for teacher development. With that time, how can districts and school systems ensure the time in a teacher's day allows for growth?

James Madison University Graduate Student

Email: gazdale@pwcs.edu
Website: http://lang-arts-8--20-p2ab-yr8-g.saundersms.schools.pwcs.edu/
Phone: 703-670-9188