Title: Evaluations That Help Teachers Learn - Educational Leadership
Headings: Evaluations That Help Teachers Learn
Evaluations That Help Teachers Learn
The Problem
Why Do We Evaluate Teachers?
To Ensure Teacher Quality
Figure 1. Levels of Performance in Questioning and Discussion Techniques
To Promote Professional Development
Two in One
Getting from Here to There
Seeing Benefits in Chicago
Two Challenges
The Need for Trained Evaluators
Finding Time for Professional Conversations
A Thoughtful Approach
Endnote
KEYWORDS
Requesting Permission

Content: Administrators may use the evaluations for decisions regarding employment and compensation. This is crucial when deciding which teachers should attain permanent status as tenured professionals or which teachers should be nominated for leadership positions as mentors or coaches. To Promote Professional Development
But there's another purpose of teacher evaluation: to promote professional learning. Teacher evaluation typically serves this more developmental purpose through professional conversations between teachers and colleagues who observe in their classrooms and between teachers and supervisors following formal or informal observations. A commitment to professional learning is important, not because teaching is of poor quality and must be "fixed," but rather because teaching is so hard that we can always improve it. No matter how good a lesson is, we can always make it better. Just as in other professions, every teacher has the responsibility to be involved in a career-long quest to improve practice. Two in One
The challenge is merging these two purposes of teacher evaluation. Educators need to create procedures that yield valid and reliable results—that is, that satisfy the legitimate demands for quality assurance while promoting professional learning.