In a move designed to both improve education, and improve the public image of teachers’ unions, the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association has acknowledged the need for student performance to play a greater role in teacher evaluation, a move that should bring teacher evaluation into the 21st Century. The consideration of student performance on standardized tests–as one of multiple indicators, to also include lesson plans, local assessments, and classroom observations–should be part of the process by which both teachers and administrators should receive a rating of either exemplary, proficient, needs improvement or unsatisfactory, according to Reinventing Educator Evaluation, a policy brief released by the MTA and the Center for Education Policy and Practice.
Other key changes proposed by MTA include:
- Streamlining the number of standards and indicators on which evaluations must be based.
- Encouraging districts and local unions to negotiate establishing Peer Assistance and Review programs under which educators would, under certain circumstances, assist in the evaluation of other teachers.
- Requiring all educators to have professional growth plans, and requiring administrators to provide the necessary support–including professional development opportunities–called for in these plans.
- Establishing opportunities for advancement and additional compensation for highly-rated educators, and potential dismissal for those receiving the lowest ratings.
While teachers will be assessed on five standards (High Expectations, Curriculum and Instruction, Assessment, Reflective Practice and Professional Responsibility), administrators will also face five standards upon which they will be rated (Instructional Leadership, Management and Operations, Family and Community Relations, Reflective Practice, and Professional Responsibility). The notion that administrators are as culpable as classroom teachers, along with a requirement that teachers are formally evaluated at least every two years (most classroom teachers acknowledge they are rarely, if ever, evaluated after they receive their “professional” certification by principals overburdened with myriad responsibilities) make this new system attractive to educators who do not fear evaluation, but in fact crave the professional feedback and opportunities for improvement and growth.
This agreement between Massachusetts teachers and advocates for evaluation reform could serve as a model for other 21st Century evaluation protocols.
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Tags: Effective Education, Effective Educators, Evaluation, Teachers Unions
