Revisiting Teacher Evaluations

I have been thinking for a long time about teacher evaluations and how effective they are - especially for a very seasoned teacher.  Each year the experienced teacher prepares for both a formal and informal evaluation - not so very time consuming for the teacher, since she should mostly be doing what she normally does, but at least a few hours of extra work for the administrator.  To me, it  seems more like jumping through hoops.  So... I have been thinking about how seasoned teachers could be evaluated in a more effective way.

It seems to me that once an experienced teacher has reached a level of  "highly performing/ proficient," for maybe three years in a row, that the administrator might be wasting her time in evaluating that teacher every single year.  The administrator's time might be better spent with less seasoned teachers.  That's not to say that an experienced teacher no longer has anything to learn, but my experience has been that when a teacher reaches that point of "master teacher" that she basically is designing her own professional development.  She has figured out what she needs and goes about finding her own way through on-line resources, books, etc. to meet her need.  Administrators find it time consuming because they want the evaluation to reflect all that they think that teacher has become. Of course, teachers never  reach a point where they have nothing more to learn or a time when they should never be evaluated again, but maybe the administrator only needs to see the teacher once every three years - or five years.  Maybe instead of the administrator seeing the teacher every year, the annual evaluation could include a reflection by the seasoned teacher of what she has learned since the last evaluation, how her teaching has changed, and what she plans for the following year.

In the meantime, what could be beneficial to the seasoned teacher to help her continue to improve her practice?  Seasoned teachers still need feedback, but how could a seasoned teacher get the feedback in another way?  I would propose that master teachers in this category do a demo teach each year instead of an administrator observation.  She would teach a lesson for a group of her colleagues that would include all the preparation materials that she would gather for an administrator's evaluation and a debrief with the group.   The seasoned teacher would have the opportunity to explain her thinking and why she made the decisions that she did during the lesson, how she will evaluate the effectiveness of the lesson, etc., using a format similar to National Boards for reflecting on a lesson.  Observers would have the time to make noticings of positive things they saw and to ask questions about things that they still wonder about.  Since teachers at this level are usually providing their own self-reflection for their own growth, I think going through this process would be much more valuable.  This seems like a win-win all the way around. The teacher goes through her own growth cycle.  The observers see a master teacher and have the opportunity to questions and reflect, and the administrator is able to spend her time with teachers in her building that are needier of her supervision.

Anybody else interested in a change?.    

Pay for Performance

I have been so worked up over this issue for so long, that I thought when I sat down to write this blog that it would practically write itself, and yet, I have been sitting here staring at an empty page and trying to decide what it is that I really want to say.

You see, when the idea of pay for performance first came out, I applauded it.  I thought it was about time that teachers that work so hard and care so much, who put passion and commitment into their work, should be recognized.  I was sick to death of seeing poor teachers continue in our profession.  I thought it was about time that we got rid of those teachers who were just there to earn a paycheck and didn't really care about their ethical responsibility to the children in their care.  It seemed like such a logical path and such an affirmative cause.

What  I didn't fully realize is that the decision for how the system would work would be left up to politicians and people who have never walked in a teacher's shoes. We would not be like doctors who police their own profession or lawyers who regulate their own membership, but we would be the pawns in a wicked game of political power and circumstance. 

I could give you all the little details of why this system hasn't worked, from personal experience, but it doesn't really matter.  The bottom line is that the formula for being a "highly effective" teacher, which is the road to performance pay in Florida, combines a principal's evaluation with student growth scores.  The problems with that formula are so enormous that it's hard to contain in a single blog. They have tried so hard to be fair, but a principal's evaluation, no matter how hard they try, is still subjective, and the growth scores are a crap shoot in any given year.  Sure, there's a state test to determine growth scores for some teachers but is that even that fair?  You can argue that the teachers have no way to control for what their students come to school with or you could argue that students who make a perfect score often count as "not making growth" when they make a perfect score the next year, so how can those growth scores be fair?  I could spend this entire blog just talking about things that effect the scores that are out of a teacher's control!

And to complicate it even more, there is no state test for K-1 students (and for many resource and specialty teachers).  I could tell you about the year that my growth score was dependent on a state test and that the communication was so poor at the state and county level that our school never got the word of how to open the portal to test high achieving children so... because our children made so high on the pretest and then just repeated their perfect scores on the post test, they were deemed not to make progress!  Of course, that certainly is water under the bridge. However, I guess I still haven't gotten over it, because I'm bringing it up here! It's just hard to live with because it effected a large number of extraordinary teachers.  That year most of those exemplary teachers were not highly effective, although they had very high Principal evaluations.  It wasn't because they didn't teach their heart out or because their students didn't make exceptional progress. It was because of a glitch and a line of  poor communication.

Or we could take this year's announcement of last year's scores.  My kindergarten group showed amazing progress as a group and individually.  I was so proud by the end of the year.  I won't go into all the individual successes we had, but they were numerous.   Our growth score for last year was determined by a county-written test designed for pre and post testing.   The test had never been field tested.  It was a new test, designed by "somebody"  - hmmmmm...  Anybody see a problem?  This was also the year that we were told at the beginning of the year that kindergartners would be pre and post tested and monitored each nine weeks in Language Arts, Math and Science and pre and post tested in Art, Music P.E. - I don't even remember all the absurd testing that we were suppose to do.  When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke, but no, "someone" had decided that this made sense for five year olds?  About sixty days into the school year, the county finally "listened" to the outcry and came down to a more reasonable testing schedule but by then, much of the damage had been done.  We had complied with the original requirement so we had essentially lost 60 days of initial instructional time.  As the data began to arrive, it was full of mistakes.  We had students with scores over 100%, missing data, and missing students, so the data was useless.  We called... and called... and called... the Testing Office to have the obvious inaccuracies fixed.  I'll bet they flipped a coin in the testing office and the loser had to take our calls!  It would really have been comical, except it affected children and our reputations as teacher! The data was basically unreliable - and this was going to be our growth scores to determine if we were highly effective?

I shouldn't have been surprised  that when the growth scores came in, that I was called into the Principal's Office.  The Principal explained to me that I had a 1% growth score.  1%!!!!!!!  That means that exactly 1% of my kinder students made progress last year!  I had about a second of absolute panic when I thought - could I really suck that bad?  But then reality began to set in.  No... this was a class that had made incredible progress. I could go student by student and rattle off the amazing things that I had witnessed. We had worked so hard. I looped this class, so I still had most of these students as first graders.  No way! No, this was not possible...  As I began to put it together, I noticed my Principal sort of smile.  "I know," she said, "there has to be something wrong with the data."  OH MY GOSH!  A 1% growth score put me in the "Needs Improvement" category! I am a National Board Certified Teacher with over 30 years experience. I am a former Florida Teacher of the Year.  I have published 19 books for teachers and now, I was in the "Needs Improvement" category!  Really?!! Thankfully, the Principal and Assistant Principal went right to work to begin notifying the Testing Office that there had to be something wrong with the data.  It ended up that there was a large group of teachers at my school - and I later learned at other schools - that were effected.

That was October.  We had to submit an appeal and were told "someone" would look into the matter, but for months, we were to hang out, having nothing to go on but a 1% growth score.  How did we know that anybody was even looking into the problem?  What would the parents in my class think, if that news got out?  I looped this class so I still taught most of the same students.  Would the parents trust the success they had witnessed in their students or would there be that little seed of doubt?  Would they wonder?  Would it get out  that a former Florida Teacher of the Year had a 1% growth score and was an ineffective teacher?  Would my name be published in the paper?  I know all of that seems a little irrational, but I am sure that in some way, it went through the mind of every teacher involved.  It's embarrassing.  This is our life's work... Our county had allowed our reputations to be defined by a poorly written test with no history and a data system that was untested and obviously full of inadequacies and inaccuracies...

Just last week, the new scores FINALLY came back - We had waited four months - FOUR MONTHS! - and I am thrilled to say that my growth score was 95%, which does put me back in the "highly effective" category, but you know what?  Who's to say that those scores are right either?  I am suppose to learn something from this process that will make me a better teacher,  but what I've learned is that this state is not ready for pay for performance.  They don't have the structure in place to make decisions that effect a teacher's morale, pay, and reputation, because each of those things in its own way effects the children that we teach... and they deserve better.

Did the state or county learn anything from this debacle?  It doesn't look like it... because this year K-1 teachers in our county have yet another new test.  This time it's a computer-based test - for kindergartners... hmmmm... see any problems?  To start with, our school simply doesn't have the technology to support a computer-based  program of this magnitude, so the very foundation is full of holes.  We have one tech lab that supports 1300 students and with the intermediate testing schedule, we might get into the lab a handful of times a year.  I have three computers in my classroom  (for 36 students!), just recently bumped up to six, but what instruction do I want my students to miss while they get on the computer?  I already have students come in before and after school and give up my planning time to help accommodate, but it's still not enough.  Of course, students can get on the programs at home, but that just widens the divide between the haves and the have nots!  The students that need the most instruction are the very ones that don't have computers at home.  But none of that  really matters, I guess, because once again, my ability to teach will be judged on the scores from a computer-based program - that even the designers of the program say was never its purpose...

Pay for performance can still be a good idea , but it's an idea that we are obviously not ready for... It's time has NOT come...

Are Teacher Evaluation Growth Scores Fair?

Lucy Calkins recently said in a workshop here in Jacksonville,  In times of your life when you were called a failure - what that does to your dedication, your sense of power!  It is debilitating.  Oh Lucy, how I understand that quote - how sad that I understand that quote...

 I feel like someone just kicked me in the gut.  Rarely have I ever felt like that as a teacher - once when dealing with an extremely difficult circumstance with a parent - once when dealing with a heart wrenching circumstance with a child.  In both cases the situations were so unfair and unjust that I just couldn't reconcile my own sense of fair play and justice.  Now is another such time.

I have always believed good teacher evaluation, that moved us toward pay for performance, could be a good thing for our profession.  I believed that teachers that worked hard and really went the extra mile deserved pay commensurate with  their skills and effort.  I was certainly never afraid of accountability or being evaluated.  As long as I continued to be a learner who was willing to give 100%, I felt like all the details would work themselves out.  I liked the idea of a career ladder for teachers who didn't want to leave the classroom. I knew some type of evaluation beyond the Principal's yearly visit would be part of the formula, and while I always worried about fairness, I put my faith in the system.  Now I know, first hand, what it feels like to work hard and go the extra mile and then let a committee's interpretation of test data tell you that you have not done all that you can for the students you teach, even though you KNOW that is NOT the case.  It feels like someone thrust a dagger in your heart.  

In my situation, it is really not the test itself that was at fault, but poor communication that resulted in 10 teachers of first graders at my school being denied credit for the success of their students.  Basically, a computer-based test was used that  didn't allow for the teachers to document the growth of their higher students.  Students topped out at the beginning of the year so there was nowhere to go at the end of the year but to repeat the same high scores - which equaled no progress! Did you get that?  There are a million details that come into play - one paragraph in a 150 page manual written in 2009 that alludes to testing at a higher grade level, training where "testing up" was supposedly explained but somehow missed by an entire grade level of teachers, a Coordinator who supposedly relayed the information to principals that never made it to teachers,  teachers who knew the problem and asked for direction and were told that testing up could NOT be done, teachers who followed the chain of command thinking they were doing the right thing, a district that decided to make an allowance for the same problem the year before but not this year - I could go on and on, but it really doesn't matter.  The plain and simple fact is that teachers who worked hard to do the very best they could for their students - students who DID make the progress - are being denied the growth scores that would label them "highly effective."

These are some of the BEST teachers that I know.  Five of them are Nationally Board Certified.  Half of them have been "Teachers of the Year." They are all overachievers who, I am sure, have some of the highest Principal evaluations in our building, because they would be satisfied with nothing less.  Most of them have leadership oozing from their pores.  These are exemplary, seasoned teachers who have built entire careers on being "highly effective."  They are leaders who have provided demonstration lessons all over the county - actually, through videotape, all over the country! About half of them looped their kids from Kindergarten to First.  In Kindergarten they were "highly effective," but as first grade teachers, with most of the same students, they are, all of a sudden, only "effective."   I wonder how the parents of the students who were rated as not showing growth - some of the highest students in the grade level - would feel if they knew?  It is because these teachers continued to teach and introduced so many first grade skills in kindergarten that they had such high scores at the beginning of first grade. So basically they are being penalized for teaching at such high levels as kindergarten teachers!  While this does not effect teachers' pay, at this time, it might in the future.  However, I doubt even one of these teachers will care as much about the pay as they care about not being considered highly effective, which implies that they did not do all that they could do for the students in their care- that some of their best students are considered as not make any growth - that they are failures...  This is about their names - their reputations - their professionalism.

I am one of those teachers.  After almost  40 years - with an entire career of being "highly effective" - this year I am only "effective."  Don't get me wrong.  I haven't spent my life teaching so that I could get some fancy label.  I absolutely love what I do.  It's a calling for me - a mission field.  I can't imagine doing anything else and at this late date, I certainly will not be making changes in my professional commitment.  But... it is demoralizing.  Honestly, it feels like someone just kicked me in the gut. It's not only me.  I have watched some of the finest teachers I know let this get to them... and I understand. It also effects our Principal and Assistant Principal, the Guidance Counselor, the Reading Coach, The Media Specialist - all of those who have to depend on our growth scores, along with the rest of the K-5 school, to prove their own effectiveness.

I know that nobody said life is fair, but until we can figure out a fairer system for evaluating teachers, I will stand with those who oppose this type of measurement.  And right now, we all have a moral responsibility to shed light on a failing teacher evaluation system.  Can we ever put our faith in a system that allows this to happen?

New 2011 Teacher Evaluation system

I hadn't thought much about the new teacher evaluation system in Florida... until Thanksgiving.

As I shared the holiday with my family, I sat around the table with my family, teachers from all parts of the state - kindergarten and first grade teachers, high school teachers, PE teachers and Guidance Counselors.  As the topic of the new state-wide teacher evaluation system came up in conversation, they were fairly unanimous in their opinion about how hurtful and painful the system has been in their individual schools.  One of the kinder teachers talked about veteran teachers who were in tears as they were told after 12 and 18 years of teaching that they were "beginning" and "developing".  They considered it a slap in the face after giving 110% for so many years.  This seemed to be pretty common experience across the conversation.  The kinder teacher said that her Principal told her faculty that it was impossible for a K-1-2 teacher to get "highly effective" because it was impossible for students of that age to meet the highest level expectation on the rubric.  In every single incidence, these usually dedicated, committed teachers agreed that the system was out to "get 'em" and was designed to have few teachers at the top so they wouldn't have to pay them the top dollar when performance pay comes into effect across the state.  One teacher said that Principals in her county had been told that there would be repercussions for Principals who scored too many teachers too high!  The older teachers in the group talked about retiring early - now - and looking for other work to "get out."   The younger teachers talked about other professional choices - these are the same teachers who have been so excited about a career in teaching just a year ago!

I could hardly participate or even listen to the conversations because my heart was breaking...

I haven't had my first informal evaluation yet - that's scheduled for next week - but I have looked briefly at the rubric.  After 40 years of teaching, how will I feel if I am scored as "beginning" or "developing" in any area?  Will the fact that the students I teach struggle with language be a consideration on the level of conversation that they have?  I'm actually having the Principal come during a combination third/fourth grade intervention group - a Phonics for Reading, Level 1 group with 5 students with special needs.  The lessons are scripted and according to the developer of the program, Anita Archer, every word is researched, so I do not veer much from the text.  In fact, my challenge is staying with the exact wording, knowing that it stands on the shoulders of research. It can be rather boring, I guess, but it is what I do with that particular group of students, and the program is effective.  So... should I develop a "dog and pony show" instead to meet the little blocks on the rubric or should I plan to do what I really do?  I have opted to do what I do and just take the evaluation with a grain of salt.  Whatever the outcome, it is what it is.  I will try not to feel defensive or personally attacked and be open enough to see the learning that is just under the clouded surface.  I doubt it's any easier on my Principal - who is over 20 years my junior (I could have birthed her!) - to have to evaluate me than it is for me to sit through someone discussing my shortcomings!  I actually feel sorry for my Principal.  We have over 20 Nationally Board Certified Teachers at our school and another huge block of teachers who go above and beyond every single day.  I am sure telling any of those teachers that they may not be "highly effective" will be very difficult, especially if it is tied to pay.  To her credit, I don't feel the same sense of doom and gloom that the rest of my family seems to be feeling, although we are only at the beginning of this process.  If the culture at our school is nervous, they are also still upbeat and unbelievably committed.  It will be interesting to see how this unfolds across our state...

From a young teacher's perspective...

A New Evaluation System for Teachers?

Administrators in my county have recently been out of their buildings for three days to learn, yet another, new teacher evaluation system. I believe it was negotiated by our union and will be the foundation for identifying effective teachers and part of the formula for paying them accordingly. I have always been an advocate for accountability and I believe that performance and evaluation should be somewhere in the formula for pay, but spending this time and attention on an evaluation system seems to be trying to solve the problem by looking at just a tiny part of the problem. It's like the blind man who picks up the elephant's tail and thinks the animal looks like a snake!

There are strong teachers and there are weak teachers in education - no argument there. That might be the problem but the solution is not to identify those weak teachers and then pay them a substandard wage to drum them out of the profession. The problem is systemic and has been a part of education for... ever. After graduation, there is no system for lifelong learning.

The problem starts in the beginning of a teacher's career. The problem is that after teachers graduate from college, their learning stops! There is no system in place to make sure that a beginning teacher has the support that she needs in those first years to figure out how to put that book knowledge that she has gained into practice. Yeah, we give beginning teachers a "mentor" but in most cases that comes with no release time and really just means it might, or might not, be someone you can ask a few questions and who might check on you every now and then. Good teachers search out a real "mentor", someone that they can align themselves with. They watch her every move, get into her classroom as often as possible and ask a million questions. But that's not a system, that's an individual teacher figuring it out on her own.

Not only that, there's not an improvement model for teachers in the midst of their career, when they have the basics under their belt, to grow and learn, so they just continue to do what they have always done - good or bad. They might get a new little nugget here and there and if they have the money and time, they might attend conferences and really seek out educational opportunities. On-line opportunities abound for the eager learner, but it's not easy. There is no system to help you navigate the opportunties or encourage you. You often pay your own money and spend your own time for benefits that are self-motivating and self-gratifying, but not necessarily rewarded monetarily.

As you move into the sunset of your career, I guess everyone just assumes you already know everything. You've had years of experience, but if you've simply been repeating the same things year after year, without growing, are you really any better? There is always so much more to learn.

An evaluation system might hunt out the weaker links in our schools, but a better way might be to put the time and money into quality professional development offered in an array of opportunities that could be self-directed or even self-designed. If the money and time being put toward designing evaluation systems could be put instead toward providing quality, empowering professional development, then the changes would be tenfold.

I know because I was part of a reform design that provided that type of on-going, job-embedded, quality professional development. The buy-in by teachers was exciting. I believe that we were able to turn very ordinary teachers into exceptional teachers because of the support that we were able to provide. One of the things about good professional development is that it changes a teacher's practice from then on. Most teachers really want to improve their skills. They didn't go into teaching because of the money they were going to make. Most became teachers because they want to make a difference in the lives of the children they teach and unless they become disillusioned along the way, they continue to believe and are eager to learn new techniques that work. So instead of spending our time on designing a complex evaluation system that labels teachers proficient and failing (haven't we seen how well that has worked with our school?), why not spend the time and money on a system that supports lifelong learning ?

Observations!

So I had this idea that since we had to do Science for our observation this year, that we should show the principal a complete 5-e cycle. Okay, so it wasn't my original idea! A group of teachers in another grade level did it last year, but I thought it was such an interesting idea that I really wanted to find a way to get involved in something that comprehensive. So, we put an e-mail out and asked if anyone wanted to join us in this venture. Luckily three other classrooms did! So, beginning in December, the seven teachers involved starting meeting to discuss what we wanted to show, who would do what, who would write what up, etc. - no simple task with so many teachers involved. Surprisingly, things have been very collaborative!

This week the lessons were finally taught and observed. I don't think principals REALLY understand how much planning teachers put into their observations. When teachers only have one 45 minute period to showcase a year's worth of work, they can get pretty stressed out in wanting to provide a really reflective lesson that shows what they do every day but also the best of what they do. In a school like ours, where so many teachers are so exemplary, it's easy for teachers to find the entire process daunting and discouraging. However, our group really rose to the challenge and really helped each other think through the lessons and how they would flow. Doing things this way meant that we would really have to teach each other's lessons. When we found glitches along the way, we were able to discuss how to improve the lesson before the next person taught it - almost like a lesson study but in the pressure cooker!

Investigating a live lobster

Investigating a live hermit crab

Our group is working on the essential question, What do animals need to survive? The first teacher did an engage and explore with pets - the animals children are the most familiar, to help the children figure out that pets need water, air, shelter, food and space to survive. The second teacher adapted a game as an explore and explain that was actually designed for older children about deer and their resources, to show that if deer didn't have what they needed they wouldn't survive. Today we (the three of us that teach together) finished a two-day explore-explain on what ocean animals need to survive. Because 75% of the Earth is covered in water and because our children live on the shoreline we wanted them to explore the survival needs of sea life. While we could have only used videos to demonstrate the lesson, we decided to bring in live animals. So, the children were totally engaged with a live lobster, a sea star and hermit crab! Besides the live specimens we also used video and books and had the children synthesize what each sea creature needed by making posters. The final explain came as the children added the new animals to a sort on the SmartBoard. The final lesson in this series will be an extend as children take what they have learned about pets, wild animal and sea creature needs and apply it to birds. The final class will be building bird houses using the information that they know about what animals need to survive. This tinkering project (a principal challenge) will wrap up our four classroom observations. The evaluation will follow as the final set in the 5-e process.

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I have to say it might have been easier to do our observations alone, just worrying about what was happening in our single classroom (after all, there are three teachers in our classroom, all teaching at the same time!) but working with a larger group helped us clarify the lesson and goals. The discussion brought up things that we might not have considered on our own. It takes longer to meet with a group of people and hash things out, but the results are almost always better. In this case, I am very proud of the lessons that we have created and the learning that took place. The fact that it was also our observation was just icing on the cake!