Evaluating teachers or evaluating teaching

Evaluating
Teachers,
OR
Evaluating
Teaching
By: Iwan Syahril

Friday, April 12, 13

GOOD
TEACHING
MATTERS!


Teachers Matter!

CHART: Sanders, W. and Rivers, J. (1996) Cumulative and residual effects of teachers on future student
academic achievement. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Value-Added Research and Assessment Center.


Teacher Quality:
What do we mean?
• Successful teaching = good teaching?
• Good teaching = sound pedagogy
• Successful teaching = achieving intended
results.
• What if good teaching does not achieve the
intended results?


Measures of Effective Teaching project Report
2013 by Bill and Melinda Gates foundation
Link: http://www.metproject.org/downloads/
MET_Ensuring_Fair_and_Reliable_Measures_Practitioner_Brief.pdf

• Effective teaching is
measureable(by
classroom observation,
students test score,
students survey)
• Through the
measurement, students
achievement is
predictable.


The MET project is a research partnership of academics, teachers,
and education organizations committed to investigating better ways
to identify and develop effective teaching. Funding is provided by the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
3,000 MET project teachers from the following districts: The
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the Dallas Independent Schools, the
Denver Public Schools, the Hillsborough County Public Schools, the
New York City Schools, the Memphis Public Schools, and the Pittsburgh
Public Schools. Participating teachers and students were enrolled in
math and English language arts (ELA) in grades 4 through 8,
algebra I at the high school level, biology (or its equivalent) at
the high school level, and English in grade 9.
Partners: American Institutes for Research, Cambridge Education,
University of Chicago, The Danielson Group, Dartmouth University,
Educational Testing Service, Empirical Education, Harvard University,
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, National Math
and Science Initiative, New Teacher Center, University of Michigan,
RAND, Rutgers University, University of Southern California, Stanford
University, Teachscape, University of Texas, University of Virginia,
University of Washington, and Westat.

The MET Project - The Gates Foundation


Three Evaluation
Components

• Student Surveys
• Classroom Observations
• Student Achievement Gains



This is the ﬁrst large-scale study to demonstrate, using random
assignment, that it is possible to identify great teaching.

1st year: Teaching practice was measured using a combination of
student surveys, classroom observations, & student achievement gains.

2nd year: Teachers were randomly assigned to different classrooms of
students. The students’ outcomes were later measured using state tests
and supplemental assessments designed to measure students’ conceptual
understanding in math and ability to write short answer responses
following reading passages.

Findings: The teachers whose students did better during the ﬁrst year
of the project also had students who performed better following random
assignment. Moreover, the magnitude of the achievement gains they
generated aligned with the predictions.


• The report shows that a more balanced approach –
which incorporates the student survey data and
classroom observations – has two important advantages:
ratings are less likely to ﬂuctuate from year to year, and the
combination is more likely to identify teachers with better
outcomes on assessments other than the state tests.

• The report provides guidance on the best ways to achieve
reliable classroom observations. The report
recommends averaging observations from more than one
observer, such as another administrator in a school or a peer
observer.



Teacher Evaluation
• Evaluation standards should be clear and
detailed so that teachers understand the targets
and evaluators can provide focused help on
where they need to improve.
• Some Questions: How to put evaluation
measures into place in order to make sure they are
fair, consistent, and produce accurate data? Should
observations be announced or unannounced?
How many observations are needed to get a
meaningful sense of the quality of classroom
instruction? Who should conduct the evaluations?

Test scores
• How do tests help us achieve
our educational goals?
• So, what do the scores really
mean? How important are they in
achieving the educational goals?


Educational Goals May Include...
• Creating active, responsible, caring citizens.

• Fostering critical thinking, developing creative and innovative
minds.

• Preparing future skills: multi-literacies skills, numeracy skills,
communication skills, etc.

• Preparing global citizens: open-minded with a strong
empathy, combating stereotypes, prejudices, and any types of
discrimination especially against minority and marginalized
groups.

• And the list can go on and on....


Prof. Mary Kennedy:
Attribution Error!

• “We have veered too far toward the attribution of teaching
quality to the characteristics of teachers themselves, and are
overlooking situational factors that may have a strong bearing
on the quality of teaching practices we see.”

• “Policy makers and researchers seek better strategies for
assessing teachers assuming that such qualities have a
predictable bearing on teaching practices.”
Reference: Kennedy, M. M. (2010). Attribution error and the quest for teacher quality. Educational Researcher, 39(8), 591-598.


We should move from this model:

Teacher Teaching Student
characteristics Practices Learning

...to the following model:

Teacher
characteristics
Teaching Student
Practices Learning
Situational
characteristics


Situational
characteristics

• TIME. Teachers’ already limited planning time is further
reduced by other agendas: departmental meetings, assemblies,
parent visits, test results reviews, professional development, etc.

• MATERIALS. Lack of coherence, consistency and alignment
between textbooks, standards, curriculum framework and
achievement tests; lack of manuals for deep and complex
learning activities.

• WORK ASSIGNMENTS. The number of different type/
level of class to teach, out-of-ﬁeld assignment, extra-curricular
responsibilities.


“Teaching is such a difficult practice!”
~David Labaree
• The problem of client cooperation.
learn what the teacher is teaching.
The student must be willing to

• The problem of compulsory clientele. Students are present under
duress, otherwise students may be doing something else rather than learning
algebra, literature, biology, etc.

• The problem of emotion management. Teachers need to actively
establish and manage emotional relationships with students.

• The problem of structural isolation. Teachers are the only professional
in the room left alone to manage 30 kids on their own.

• The problem of chronic of uncertainty about the effectiveness
of teaching. The will and emotion in the teaching and learning process, the
effects of teaching, the conflicting purposes of education, confusing client’s identity.
Reference: Labaree, D. F. (2000). On the nature of teaching and teacher education: Difficult practices that look easy. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 228-233.


Professor Yong Zhao:
The traditional strengths in the US education:
appreciation on individual interests and
talents, passion, curiosity, conﬁdence
and risk-taking. This leads to creativity,
innovation, entrepreneurship - the
qualities needed to win the global competition.


“Not everything
that can be
counted counts,
and not
everything that
counts can be
~Albert Einstein counted.”

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