Go Slow to Go Fast on Teacher Evaluation
by Lois Kilby-Chesley
Vice President
Maine Education Association
For more than 20 years Maine teachers have had the assurance that our evaluations would be based on the work we perform. Thanks to Race To The Top, the barrier protecting us from evaluations based on student scores is being breached. Only an amendment to LD 1799 saved us from an even more uncertain future.
Now MEA must work with a stakeholders group made up of school committee members, superintendents, principals, and special education directors charged with developing teacher evaluation models that include the use of student test data.
Throughout my teaching career adherence to the advice, "Go slow to go fast" has been repeated in a variety of forums. To begin slowly, be thorough and deliberate in decision-making, and make every effort to develop useful evaluation models is good advice in the present "Race to the Top." Policy-makers should think carefully about the consequences of rushing into a student test score/teacher evaluation model.
The NEA report, "Teacher Evaluation Systems: The Window for Opportunity and Reform," points out that it is only over the long term that a teacher's effectiveness can be acknowledged. If student achievement data are being used in the evaluation of teachers, information must be gathered prior to the process taking effect. A teacher's success with test scores is as variable as the student differences from year to year and class to class. This student variability prevents quick implementation of a system and requires that teacher evaluation take a longitudinal view.
Additionally, standardized, national testing has been reduced to extracting student data in English/language arts (ELA), mathematics, and, occasionally, science. In many educational circles there are concerns about the effectiveness of the popular NWEA tests and the debate continues over the appropriateness of using the SAT for all students. Validity, reliability, and purpose of the tests used must be considered into the evaluation equation.
If standardized testing covers ELA, math and science, what test scores would be used to evaluate the effectiveness of those other teachers, for example guidance counselors, speech pathologists, and art, music, and PE teachers? Using student test scores severely restricts developing a thorough and equitable evaluation system for all teachers.
The tests being used to evaluate teacher effectiveness in most schools are based not on what teachers believe is important, but instead are based on a set of standards set outside Maine (NECAP). They do not align with the Maine Learning Results (NWEA). They rarely align with programming nor do they represent what we believe is important to teach. So we spend valuable time preparing our students for upcoming testing rather than teaching. At the same time many of us are working daily from a curriculum that is handed down to us without adequate input. Thus, teachers could be evaluated on the results of tests that have not been proven to test what we teach, on material from a curriculum that lacks our input.
A true review of a child's growth requires comprehensive interpretation with multiple assessments that evaluate skills that are being taught. Until a suitable test is found that adequately tests students it appears that the use of student data to assess teacher effectiveness is itself ineffective.
The solution that the stakeholders group will be asked to find can't be completed quickly or easily. They would do well to slow down while considering the long-term consequences of its actions upon the teachers of Maine.
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