Page 25 - Leadership Matters February 2013_3140b78f.pub
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evidence is: 1) What the teacher says and does; 2)
What the students say and do; 3) Can it be counted?;
4) Can it be timed?; and 5) Can the teaching be
summarized accurately using only evidence based
words? Evaluators learn to collect evidence from the
observations, categorize the evidence by domain/
component, enter into reflective conversations with
the teacher, and finally, summatively rate the teacher.
Following the above stated process, how can
anyone say that no teacher will be rated
Distinguished/Excellent? The administrator would
have to gather the evidence and rate the teacher
based on that evidence. The summative rating could
not be predetermined to be ‘Proficient.” It has been
my experience that there are many excellent teachers.
These excellent teachers will learn what the FFT
requires for a summative “Distinguished” rating and
they will earn this rating. I wonder what Danielson
means by “teachers visit distinguished but do not live
there.” However, I would guess if you asked
Danielson if there are excellent teachers in Illinois she
would say yes.
Will there be less summative rated excellent
teachers in Illinois now that the FFT is being
implemented? Probably yes, but we cannot make that
determination until we gather the evidence, categorize
the evidence by domain/component, reflect with the
teacher and then rate the teacher. We need to
conduct multiple informal and formal observations to
gather enough evidence to make this final
determination. It is my guess that teachers will
continue to improve when it comes to illustrating the
critical elements of the frameworks in these multiple
observations. In my personal opinion, we have many
excellent teachers in Illinois no matter what the
measure.
Following the required teacher evaluation
training for all teacher evaluators, the actual
competencies needed to do this work to actually
improve teaching and learning and determine the
professional teaching practice rating for the
teacher
While virtually all Illinois teacher evaluators have
successfully completed the Teachscape training I
have drawn the conclusion that this training was a
good inter-rater Danielson training. It did not include
specific training on the relative importance of the
various components within the Danielson Frameworks
for Teaching (FFT).
The FFT emphasizes the importance of Engaged
Learning as the most important Component and
Domain 3, Instruction, as the most important Domain.
Evaluators must evidence engaged learning for the
teacher to be rated as proficient or distinguished in the
FFT. Danielson defines engaged learning as the
student being intellectually involved in the work. An
evaluator must evidence this intellectual involvement.
This begs the question of how an evaluator would
evidence student engagement when a teacher is
lecturing or when the classroom activity is totally
teacher centered.
In a lecture classroom the observer could
evidence the number of students looking at the
teacher, the number of students taking notes, the
number of students verbally interacting with the
teacher either by asking or answering questions, etc…
However, it is difficult for the observer to evidence that
“virtually all students are highly engaged” in a lecture
or teacher centered classroom. The key for “engaged”
classrooms is for the students to be intellectually
doing the work. The more the classroom resembles
active intellectual student work the higher the teacher
would be rated in relation to “engaged learning.”
If a teacher evaluator only sees lecture or teacher
centered activities after observing a teacher multiple
times in both informal and formal observations the
teacher would be rated “Needs Improvement” at best.
This is one of the reasons evaluators need to make
multiple observations, to see the teacher in a variety
of activities in multiple observations
In this new evidence gathering process, I
encourage (really require) administrators to go around
the room and ask students questions about what work
they are doing. Danielson describes engaged learning
as the student intellectually doing the work. In order
for a teacher evaluator to evidence engaged learning,
the administrator must talk to students and record the
conversation for evidence purposes.
Teacher evaluators finding the time that will be
required to do the teacher performance-based
evaluation with veracity
Teacher evaluators will need to observe teachers
much more than the minimum required by the rules
(one informal and one formal for tenured teachers and
one informal and two formal for non-tenured teachers)
in order to afford teachers fundamental due process.
No teacher evaluator is going to be part of a process
to honorably discharge a 25-year veteran teacher with
just a few observations. At a minimum, I believe it will
take eight to ten informal/formal observations over a
two-year cycle to gather enough evidence for all ten
components in Domain 2 and 3 of the FFT. This begs
the question “What will administrators not do in order
to dedicate the time needed to do this work?”
SB 7: Growing pains
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