| San Diego Education Report's SUGGESTED TEACHER EVALUATION PLAN Blog posts on teacher evaluation Teachers would be evaluated through observations by experienced teachers from other school districts (to limit the role of politics). The evaluators wouldn't even know beforehand whom they're going to evaluate. New teachers would accompany and assist the evaluators because observing and assessing is a great way to learn. There would be a standard list of actions and attitudes to look for, and every teacher would be given a score which would be based on: I. the observations described above; II. students' test scores; III. standardized tests taken by the teachers themselves; IV. interviews with teachers (see below "Interviewing to keep your job"; also, this would give teachers a chance to give more information to evaluators.) The tests given to teachers would be used to determine (a) which teachers need training; and (b) which teachers can do the training. What should be done with the final scores? 1. Average teachers would stay in the standard teaching job, but they would have the possibility of improving their scores and rising to master teacher level. 2. Every classroom would have one standard teacher, while the more effective master teachers would be given responsibility for several classrooms, teaching part time in each of these classrooms, and taking responsibility for guiding and educating the standard teachers. 3. The more effective teachers should be paid two to three times what the regular teachers are paid in order to attract really smart people--people who could have been doctors or physicists. |
| Schools need to start evaluating teachers effectively whether or not any teacher is ever laid off. Teachers are leaving schools all the time, and it's often the best teachers who are pushed out or who choose to leave. (Guillermo Gomez and I both left Chula Vista Elementary School District.) An unhealthy teacher culture that fears change and protects mediocre and poor performers causes many good teachers to leave, including some who are simply too disgusted to stay. We can't fire weak teachers because we don't have anyone to replace them, but professional observers should evaluate all teachers, and poor performers should be supported and supervised by good teachers. |
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| Interviewing to keep your job Voice of San Diego June 12, 2008 "...All vice principals underwent a new interview to compete for a shifting pool of jobs. The interview is modeled on the teachings of University of Wisconsin Milwaukee professor Martin Haberman, who studies disadvantaged students and the educators who help them best. Principals applying for new jobs were interviewed as well. "San Diego Unified signed a $23,000 contract with the Haberman Educational Foundation to train staffers in the interview process, which includes problem-solving scenarios and is meant to reveal the applicants' core values. Two people ask open-ended questions during a tape-recorded interview and score the answers. "It's a different kind of interview. You can't really bone up. Nobody really knows how they did," said Bruce McGirr, president of the Administrators Association and principal at Grant School in Mission Hills. "They walk out shaking their heads." "The Haberman Educational Foundation declined to release interview questions, but Grier offered examples of scenarios: How might a principal evaluate their school's achievement? How would they improve it? And who would they involve in that process? "You're posed with a situation you'd find pretty typical in any school, but especially in an urban school district. It could be a very simple question, but the answer itself reflects what you value," said human resources director Sam Wong. "What guides your actions, if not your values?" If their eyes glaze over, Grier said they aren't likely to succeed. |