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New York Times,
Monday, Feb 20, 2012
Steve Ball, executive principal at the East Li=
terature
Magnet School in Nashville, arrived at an English class
unannounced one day this month and spent 60 minutes taking copious notes as=
he
watched the teacher introduce and explain the concept of irony. “It w=
as a
good lesson,” Mr. Ball said.
But under Tennessee’s new teacher-evaluation system, which is
similar to systems being adopted around the country, Mr. Ball said he had to
give the teacher a one — the lowest rating on a five-point scale R=
12;
in one of 12 categories: breaking students into groups. Even though Mr. Ball
had seen the same teacher, a successful veteran he declined to identify, gr=
oup
students effectively on other occasions, he felt that he had no choice but =
to
follow the strict guidelines of the state’s complicated rubric.<=
/o:p>
“It’s not an accurate reflection of her as a teacher,=
221;
Mr. Ball said.
Spurred by the requirements of the Obama administration’s Race=
to
the Top competition, Tennessee is one of more than a dozen states overhauli=
ng
their evaluation systems to increase the number of classroom observations a=
nd
to put more emphasis on standardized test scores. But even as New York State
finally came to an agreement last week with its teachers’ unions on h=
ow
to design its new system, places like Tennessee that are already carrying o=
ut
similar plans are struggling with philosophical and logistical problems.
Principals in rural Chester County, Tenn., are staying late and work=
ing
weekends to complete reviews with more than 100 reference points. In Nashvi=
lle,
teachers are redesigning lessons to meet the myriad criteria — regard=
less
of whether they think that is the best way to teach. And at Bearden High School in Knoxville, T=
enn.,
physical education teachers are scrambling to incorporate math and writing =
into
activities, since 50 percent of their evaluations will be based on standard=
ized
tests, not basketball victories.
In Delaware, under pressure from the teachers’ union, the state
secretary of education announced last month that teachers would not be asse=
ssed
on metrics based on how much growth students showed in their classrooms, as
planned, because not enough of such data existed. In Maryland, districts we=
re
granted an additional year to develop and install evaluation models without=
the
results being counted toward tenure, pay and promotion=
s.And=
in New York,
Thursday’s agreement
came
after a stalemate lasting months in which more than 1,300 principals signed=
a
petition protesting the new evaluations.
States “are racing ahead based on promises made to Washington or
local political imperatives that prioritize an unwavering commitment to
unproven approaches,” said Grover J. Whitehurst, a senior fellow at t=
he
Brookings Institution. “There’s a lot we don’t know about=
how
to evaluate teachers reliably and how to use that information to improve
instruction and learning.”
Backers of the new approaches say that change takes time. “You =
have
to start the process somewhere,” said Daniel Weisberg, executive vice
president and general counsel at The New Teacher Project, a nonpro=
fit
agency founded in 1997. “If you don’t solve the problem of teac=
her
quality, you will continue to have an achievement gap.”
Emily Barton, assistant commissio=
ner
for curriculum and instruction at the Tennessee Department of Education,
acknowledged that the new system had kinks, but said that she heard “a
consistent theme that the process is leading to rich conversations about
instruction and that teacher performance is improving.” In early 2010,
the legislature required that half of a teacher’s evaluation be based=
on
annual observations and half on student achievement data. The following yea=
r,
the state board of education added specifics: each year, principals or
evaluators would observe new teachers six times,=
and
tenured ones four times.
Each observa=
tion
focuses on one or two of four areas: instruction, professionalism, classroom
environment and planning. Afterward, the observer scores the teacher accord=
ing
to the state’s detailed and computerized system. Instruction, for
example, has 12 subcategories, including “motivating students” =
and “presenting
instructional content.” Motivating students, in turn, has subcategori=
es
like “regularly reinforces and rewards effort.” In all, there a=
re
116 subcategories.
“It=
217;s
one thing to be observing — I love that, it’s my primary
role,” said Troy Kilzer, the 44-year-old
principal of Chester County High School. ̶=
0;But
you know when a good lesson is being taught without looking at a rubric.=
221;
Mr. Kilzer said the new system had led to more
precise discussions with teachers about their skills and better lesson
planning. But he can hardly keep up with the work.
For principals, it is not just the observations, =
but
also the pre-conference (where teachers explain and show the lesson), the
post-conference (where observers explain what teachers might have done bett=
er)
and four to six hours inputting data. “We are spending a lot of time
evaluating people we know are very good teachers,” Mr. Kilzer said.
For many principals, the observations mean less t=
ime
for the kind of spot visits to classrooms that they relish — and for
everything else. “Parents were used to immediate feedback, or
they’d stop back for a meeting,” said Connie Gwinn, principal o=
f H. G. Hill Middle School in
Nashville who is supportive of the new system over all. “We don’=
;t
have the opportunity to do that any more.”=
;
In November, state officials allowed some
observations to be combined. Now, evaluators must measure the same number of
data points, but they can do it in fewer visits.
Gera Summerford, pres=
ident
of the Tennessee Education Association,
compared the new evaluations to taking your car to the mechanic and making =
him
use all of his tools to fix it, regardless of the problem, and expecting hi=
m to
do it in an hour.
“It ha=
s been
counterproductive to the intent — a noble intent — of an evalua=
tion
system,” said Stephen Henry, president of the Metropolitan Nashville Education Association=
.
Some teacher=
s,
though, praised the system.
“IR=
17;m
definitely a lot more attuned to making my plans,” said Morgan Shinlever, a physical education and health and wellne=
ss
teacher at Bearden High.
Since Mr. Shinlever knows his fate now depends on math and read=
ing
scores, he is making his classes more academic. After watching the document=
ary
“Food, Inc.” recently, his sophomores
wrote essays. Similarly, in Chester County, a gym teacher recently spread
playing cards around and had students run to find three that added to 14.
Tennessee
officials say the system will be tweaked but not changed significantly. The
legislature is considering bills to exempt this year’s evaluations fr=
om
tenure decisions, and to lower the bar for tenure from scores of four or fi=
ve
to three. And the state recently announced teachers would not find out their
ratings until the middle of next year — at which point, they will be =
deep
into next year’s observations and testing.
“It=
217;s
like building an airplane while it flies across the sky,” said Mr. Ba=
ll,
the magnet school principal in Nashville. “We’re building it on=
the
fly.”
A version =
of
this article appeared in print on February 20, 2012, on page A1 of the New York e=
dition with the headline: States Try to Fix Quirks in Teacher Evaluations.
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