In your school, teacher evaluation may be …
… a “necessary evil” (like eating one’s vegetables as a child)
… a painful, meaningless exercise
… something you do but no one is quite sure why
… not done at all.
If any of these descriptors apply to your school, you may be surprised by our assertion that teacher evaluation, when done well, can actually help the school attract, develop, and inspire outstanding teachers. Here’s how:
Attracting
Before we can evaluate a teacher’s performance, the school has to determine what it will be evaluating—i.e., “what is important here.” By doing so, it is essentially identifying the “characteristics of excellent teaching” at your school. It turns out that these same “characteristics” can serve as the foundation of your hiring process. To wit, if the school advertises the characteristics it is seeking in its job posting, it is likely that candidates with those characteristics apply for the position. If the school bases its interview process around these characteristics, it is likely to end up hiring a candidate whose skills, interests, and characteristics are closely aligned with the school’s mission, culture, values, and teaching expectations—truly a win-win for all involved.
Developing
If the school clearly communicates the fact that teachers will be evaluated against these “characteristics,” it is also communicating the fact that it wishes teachers to continue to develop these characteristics in themselves. This is put into action through a professional development plan (also known as “growth and renewal”). By actively engaging in reflection, study, and practice regarding these characteristics, the teacher is likely to demonstrate his/her development in the characteristic—which is subsequently put to use for the benefit of their students.
Inspiring
One of the primary ways that teachers stay energized by their profession over the course of their teaching career is by continually engaging in study, reflection, conversation, practice, collaboration, etc., regarding the techniques and philosophies of teaching. By focusing on characteristics through all phases of the teacher’s career at the school (from hiring, to evaluation, to professional development), the school is providing a structure that enables and supports these healthy, growth-oriented conversations—thus helping teachers remain engaged and inspired throughout the academic year and throughout the many years of their career … and it all started with “evaluation.”
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 9 No. 4 New Year: A Time to Think About Performance Evaluations
ISM Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 10 No. 2 Rethinking Faculty Performance Evaluations
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 9 No. 6 Can Evaluation Really Drive Faculty (and Student) Performance?
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 9 No. 5 The Teacher Evaluation Stalemate in New York
Additional ISM resources for Consortium Gold Members
I&P Vol. 37 No. 2 A 21st Century Teacher Evaluation Model
