Job or Profession Specific Information : Teacher Evaluations

By na - udging the performance of Belle Plaine public school building principals and classroom teachers will be determined on the outcome of tests students take beginning next year under a local version of a state plan. Last week, the Belle Plaine School Board OK'd a formula that bases performance reviews on test scores (35 percent) survey results (15 percent) and the success of meeting goals in a growth plan made before the start of the school year (50 percent). The outcome of the performance review is private data and will not directly impact whether or not the principal or teacher receives a pay increase. An unsuccessful performance review could result in the principal or teacher being placed on an improvement plan that, if not met, could ultimately result in the loss of a job, said Superintendent Kelly Smith. Viewed 493 Times )

By STEPHANIE BANCHERO And DAVID KESMODEL - Teacher evaluations for years were based on brief classroom observations by the principal. But now, prodded by President Barack Obama's $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, at least 26 states have agreed to judge teachers based, in part, on results from their students' performance on standardized tests. So with millions of teachers back in the classroom, many are finding their careers increasingly hinge on obscure formulas like the one that fills a whiteboard in an economist's office here. (Teacher evaluation via looking at student achievement is a hugely controversial subject, and for good reason.) Viewed 542 Times )

By Michael Huemer - Informal student evaluations of faculty were started in the 1960's by enterprising college students.(1) Since then, their use has spread so that now they are administered in almost all American colleges and universities and are probably the main source of information used for evaluating faculty teaching performance.(2) There is an enormous literature on the subject of student evaluations of faculty (SEF).(3) The following is a summary of some developments in that literature that should be of special interest to faculty, with particular emphasis on criticisms of SEF that have emerged recently. But I begin with the arguments in favor of the use of SEF. Viewed 478 Times )

By na - The ads and popups are a disgrace for a professional site, but the article is decent. Excerpt: Evaluating teachers is one of the most difficult jobs in any school district. The Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools handle teacher evaluation by incorporating it into an in-depth, wide-ranging approach to teacher learning called the Professional Growth System. Education World takes a close look at the system's practical elements and how it works. Viewed 575 Times )

By SHARON OTTERMAN - This is big, since traditionally teachers unions have fought loudly against looking at student achievement when evaluating teachers. Excerpt: Catching up to the reality already faced by many of its members, the nation's largest teachers' union on Monday affirmed for the first time that evidence of student learning must be considered in the evaluations of school teachers around the country. Viewed 606 Times )

By na - Yikes. New York City education officials are planning to develop up to 16 new standardized tests for 3rd through 12th grades. Unlike other exams, these will be used to grade the teachers, not the students. Under a state law passed last year that helped New York win $700 million in a federal "Race to the Top" grant competition, school districts must evaluate teachers on a scale from "ineffective" to "highly effective," with potential firing for those rated ineffective for two years in a row. The city expects to spend about $25 million creating the new tests, which would be in addition to the standardized tests students already take. What have we learned about tests as accountability tools for teacher performance? Why do school systems believe that tests are the answer to reforming education? Viewed 589 Times )

By MORGAN SMITH - hen Texas lawmakers rolled out a framework for evaluating public schoolteachers more than 15 years ago, they intended to identify ways to strengthen the state's teaching corps. Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune Senator Dan Patrick, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, sponsored a bill on teacher appraisal and preparation. But the regular result of the largely subjective evaluations since then has been: no improvement needed. Less than 3 percent of educators receive scores below the "proficient" level, and the variation in scores from year to year has been so small that state officials stopped collecting the data from school districts after the 2010-11 academic year. Critics say the reviews, based on single 45-minute observations by district administrators, make it difficult to provide effective feedback, a point that education officials do not refute. A growing chorus of advocates for an education overhaul wants to tie teacher evaluations to student performance on standardized tests. But with the current debate in the Legislature about reducing such testing, lawmakers have not agreed on how evaluations should be conducted. Viewed 519 Times )

By na - Interested in what's happening in the evaluation of teachers? Here's an update on the new arrangements to come into effect in Sept. 2012, from the Department of Education in the United Kingdom Viewed 510 Times )

By Carole Carlson - nder a state law passed in 2011, a teacher's fate is no longer determined by seniority, but by student performance on ISTEP+. The law went into effect this year, but some school districts, including Gary and Valparaiso, postponed its implementation by extending collective bargaining contracts with teacher unions. Under Public Law 90, annual evaluations place teachers into four performance categories -- highly effective, effective, needs improvement and ineffective. Viewed 581 Times )

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