By: Hina Nisar Sadouzai

When we think about our school’s process to review and rate a teachers’ performance of classroom effectiveness, ideally we use a tool then provide feedback, professional development, and support them throughout their teaching career.  Times are changing! Yes the pandemic has caused us to rethink new paradigms for more effective learning but it has also caused us to scrutinize our teacher evaluations. The Chicago Urban Educational Institute has taken on this task. With their focus being solely on Teacher evaluations, they have suggested a redesign should consist of three major objectives:

1.     To have teachers identify their objective and which instructional feedback occurs

2.     To acknowledge teachers for diverse performances according to their efforts, pace, and student learning practices 

3.     To take a professional approach for training teachers according to individual gaps and finding resources to develop them into more skilled teachers.

To be honest, teachers must be equipped with effective instructional feedback in a timely manner to perform according to current expectations. If teachers are not performing well; they should be immediately trained in a specific area of need. Currently, in most public schools student achievement is not linked to teacher performance. Typically, schools use a standard base evaluation system indicating student achievements using rubrics include necessary components for measuring students’ performances. Yes, we use multiple instructional methods instead of one source for suggested improvements.

Why Redesigning Teacher Evaluations are so Important?

1.     To have better learning and teaching experiences.

2.    To build professional relationships to generate effective dialogue between teachers and their students.

3.    To guide teachers with a culture to promote learning and improvising to support student needs.

The Institute shared various components of their classroom observations for an “Excellence in Teaching” pilot. It included a complete pre-evaluation meeting (15-20) minutes, next was a classroom observation, last a rating that aligns with a performance rubric scale with a debrief on the observation. It is also very important to note that the post-observation session is also pre-structured before it happens.

Domains for Teacher’s Evaluation

Charlotte Danielson’s framework suggested four domains of teaching for observations

1.     Planning and Preparation

2.     Classroom Environment

3.     Clear and Concise Instructions

4.     Professional responsibilities

The planning of a teacher’s lesson can be identified through the fluidity of the delivery, specific procedures, student instructional experience, and classroom management. Creating an effective classroom environment includes components like providing effective instructions, forming student understanding of objectives, establishing a positive learning environment, classroom culture and climate, and a working system of student behavior. Clear Instructions and consistency is key in establishing connections and communicating with students. Much of a teacher’s responsibilities revolve around making sure students are able to acquire the content. All students must have access to the curriculum by meeting the needs of all learners.

Does the Relationship Between Teacher’s Evaluation and Student Learning Exist?

The Chicago pilot, used Danielson's framework observation and explored and validated teacher’s performance regarding their growth and student learning. We know that highly rated teachers play an important role in the student learning process we also identified that low-level learning in students taught by low evaluation graded teachers. We must shift our paradigms for student learning and redesigning current evaluation practices. “There is a strong relationship between classroom observation ratings and value-added measures, and the relationship holds for math and reading test scores.” and “In the classrooms of highly rated teachers, students showed the most growth; in the classrooms of teachers with low observation ratings, students showed the least growth.” Thus proving that highly effective teachers, who have strong practices, who are highly rated on their evaluation are able to push student performance.   

References:

Jackson, Jill (2019, August 07). My A-ha on Classroom Management/Behavior Management!: Jill Jackson: Jackson Consulting. Retrieved January 15, 2021, from https://jackson-consulting.com/aha-classroom-managementbehavior-management/

Rethinking Teacher Evaluation in Chicago. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2021, from https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/rethinking-teacher-evaluation-chicago-lessons-learned-classroom-observations-principal

Sartain, L., Stoelinga, S R., and Brown, E.,. (2008), “Rethinking Teacher Evaluation in Chicago”  Consortium on Chicago school research at the University of Chicago urban education institute.

Showcasing artifacts & evidence to demonstrate #TeacherEffectiveness with #Danielson Domains (The Innovative Educator). (2014, February 02). Retrieved January 15, 2021, from https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/innovative-educator-1797577/showcasing-artifacts-evidence-to-demonstrate-2291013597