Teacher Evaluation Needs More Comprehensive Reforms

A new state mandate proposed by legislators to rate teachers utilizing a combination of standardized test scores for students and enhanced classroom evaluations appears flawed at its inception. Both criteria represent what I will characterize as “snapshots” of teacher performance and fail to provide administrators with a complete picture of total accomplishment over time. To make matters even worse, political forces desire to base future teacher compensation on the results of teacher evaluation. What is needed in New Jersey and nationwide is a comprehensive approach regarding teacher evaluation or simply stated more of a “motion picture” of overall performance. As we in New Jersey embark upon an effort to identify and adopt a more valid and reliable system for teacher evaluation it appears that some progress may be made to standardize evaluation processes across districts. Unfortunately, the New Jersey State Department of Education has failed to capitalize on the moment and conceptualize a more progressive and comprehensive system for the evaluation of teachers. This lost opportunity in New Jersey only means that the limited means for evaluating teacher performance will provide a lot of interest in teacher evaluation but little in terms of real needed reform. At work in other states across this country are efforts to attain a more comprehensive and composite picture of teacher performance utilizing much broader data sources than a standardized test score or “moment in time” observation approach to evaluation. In doing so many states have abandoned the summative notion of administrator-teacher interaction and open the door for more frequent and formative professional exchanges. A movement away from the “Polaroid view” of rating teachers based upon a single classroom visit by an administrator to a more comprehensive exchange of ideas, concepts, pedagogy, and dialogue between educational professionals is necessary. This means that the educational community has to recognize the complexities inherent in the delivery of instruction in these ever-changing technological times and abandon the one-size-fits-all approach to evaluating teaching and learning. We employed in American public education are highly aware of the challenges of educating the most diverse population on planet Earth and must not acquiesce to political forces indifferent of how difficult and complex delivering educational services actually can be in these contemporary times. American educators who have studied and led the movement to reform teacher evaluation have been clear about the need to create more inclusive and collaborative interactions between teachers and those responsible for making summary judgments about performance. This means that outdated concepts of power and position embedded in the current labor/management paradigm must yield to far more collegial relationships among educators. The shift away from summative exchanges between administrator and teacher will need to evolve towards many more formative interactions, and ratings must be reserved for the end of an evaluation cycle. Under current practice, each time an administrator visits classrooms for observation purposes an evaluation of performance is expected. Too many elements of teaching are hidden from view during direct observation and too little time is spent observing in the first place for the current process to be considered either valid or reliable. In fact, when calculating administrator-teacher contact time during classroom instruction administrator observations account for less than 1% of overall direct instruction time per teacher. Compounding the current maelstrom of evaluation reform is the notion that somehow standardized test scores must play a role in rating teachers. So much has been disclosed nationally on the narrow view of student performance resulting from externally developed one-size-fits-all standardized tests, that teachers of core content subjects should not be held to account for such results. More emphasis on locally developed assessments, student growth models, and the professional development of teachers of all subjects must replace narrowly conceived notions surrounding standardized tests in core subjects. Until the frenzy created by political forces abates and solid educational knowledge is applied to evaluation practices for teachers nationwide, public schools will be unable to account for the validity or reliability of teacher evaluation. Significant reform is needed free of undue pressure or influence of legislators. The consequences for not making adequate progress in the evaluation of teachers will continue to delay much needed reforms in the delivery of educational services to America’s children.