Press Releases
How Can Teacher Evaluation Systems Support Pathways to Improvement?
May 1, 2013
There’s no doubt about it: with the quality of the classroom teacher representing the most important factor affecting student achievement during the school day, the U.S. needs to beef up ways to support teachers while holding them accountable for their performance.
The good news is that, according to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 30 states have stepped up to the plate to create sophisticated statewide systems for teacher evaluation. But what does it take to build on this progress?
During the panel “Teacher Evaluation and National Testing: Can We Reach Consensus?” at the Milken Institute Global Conference, educators and leaders involved in the development and implementation of teacher evaluation systems discussed essential elements that make them effective.
Warren Fletcher, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, emphasized that “all teachers are willing to improve instruction.” However, they need a roadmap. When systems rely too heavily on test score outcomes to determine teacher performance, teachers can be left in the lurch. What’s more, Fletcher notes, “it’s important for evaluators to be calibrated.” There needs to be a system of checks and balances to protect against score inflation. The United Teachers Los Angeles is partnering with the Los Angeles Unified School District to devise a system that meets the needs of all involved.
While some schools are new to the process, others have efforts well underway. Yvonne Chan, principal of the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima, California, created teacher evaluation and performance-based pay systems in 1997—when these reforms were revolutionary. With the goal of aligning instruction to student growth targets, Chan and her team of teachers designed a robust rubric for teacher observations. The rubric outlines clear expectations and involves teachers of all levels and content areas in the school. The keys to sustaining these systems? “Time, money and school culture.”
In the Ascension Parish Schools in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, a group of high-need schools have adopted TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement under the leadership of Superintendent Patrice Pujol. The TAP system (www.tapsystem.org) is a comprehensive reform encompassing teacher leadership opportunities, regular job-embedded professional development, teacher evaluation and performance-based compensation. Pujol shepherded the implementation of TAP to close the achievement gap between her district of affluent and high-poverty schools.
What attracts her most to TAP is its emphasis on providing regular feedback to teachers on how to improve their instruction, using student data. “We need to track student outcomes in classrooms not only at the end of the year, but also weekly and monthly,” she said. “What are ways that we can provide teachers with the next steps for improving instruction and getting students to mastery?”
Jason Culbertson, chief learning officer of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET)—which manages and supports the TAP system across the country—added that teacher leaders represent a critical piece to the puzzle. All teachers need a common knowledge of what good instruction looks like. As part of its technical assistance and training services, NIET provides a portal complete with interactive modules and classroom lessons to enhance a teacher’s mastery on a particular rubric indicator or in a content area. The portal also offers a comprehensive teacher evaluation certification program to ensure that evaluators are well-equipped to train teachers in correlation with student needs and to accurately measure performance.
As the U.S. moves toward adopting the Common Core State Standards—raising teacher and student expectations across the board—aligning teacher observations with student data outcomes will be even more important. Without this connection, “we will not be successful with Common Core,” said Pujol.