Evaluating teachers or evaluating teaching

Evaluating Teachers,

OR Evaluating TeachingBy: 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.


http://www.metproject.org/downloads/MET_Ensuring_Fair_and_Reliable_Measures_Practitioner_Brief.pdf




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.


Teacher characteristics

Teaching Practices

Student Learning

Teacher characteristics

Situational characteristics

Teaching Practices

Student Learning

We should move from this model:

...to the following model:



• 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.

Situational characteristics



“Teaching is such a difficult practice!” ~David Labaree

• The problem of client cooperation. The student must be willing to learn what the teacher is teaching.

• 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

counted.”~Albert Einstein


Evaluating teachers or evaluating teaching

Education

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