duncan@geppetto.ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan) (01/31/89)
In message <1470@trantor.harris-atd.com> ferguson@x102c (ferguson ct 71078) writes in reply to Brian Stuart's question "Do you have any ideas about how we can better evaluate teachers in all levels of education?" >some suggestions for improving teacher appraisals: > > o appraisal by students -- this option could yield questionable > results since some students will dislike their teachers and score > them badly. the appraisal could be an opportunity for some > malcontents to "even the score" with the teacher. high school > students can be very immature. a student appraisal process > probably wouldn't work at all for grade-school students. I agree on the latter point because I would ask that the students write some substantial commentary to represent their opinions (not just some multiple choice on a 1-to-6 scale). This would make it easier to see on what basis a poor OR good rating was achieved. It would also make it more verifiable. I would also hope that this could be a learning experience for students as they are held responsible for making serious responses to such a process. My own experience when they rate one another (even anonymously on both sides) is that they are pretty harsh, even without a "score" to settle. > o appraisal by other teachers -- i suspect many teachers know which > of their peers are doing the job and which are just along for the > ride. I don't know if this would be any less an "opportunity for some malcontents" though. Clearly, staff peers could "dislike" one another, too. But the essay approach would be used here as well. In my own experience (college under- graduate work), I did not find much interaction on professional issues (not details of subject matter expertise) related to teaching. There may be more of this at the public school level (and maybe more these days in college as it have been many years since I taught). It is hard to know how well such an evaluation would work just dumped into the midst of a less-than-interested atmosphere to begin with. > o appraisal by student improvement -- teacher appraisal would be > determined by the cumulative percent improvement of their > students on some standardized achievement test. the measurement > of interest is the percent improvement over the previous year as > opposed to achievement of a minimum score. the objective is to > measure how much the students learned vs. how much they know. I'd like this to be part of the process. Some relationship between the tests and what's taught needs to be drawn -- either to improve what's taught or to expose the tests! > o increased classroom monitoring -- a basic problem with the > existing appraisal system is that the principal only attends > class one day a year and that day is known by the teacher in > advance. impromptu visits by the principal on an irregular basis > might give a more accurate picture of teacher performance. the > high-tech, big-brother variation of this approach is to install > video cameras in the classrooms to allow unintrusive observation. Well, the last point is pretty bizarre in my opinion. I don't know that I'd personally mind, but I wouldn't want to impose this on everyone. I'd also want it to be used "regularly" rather than "irregularly" to provide a better sampling of what happens, i.e., not infrequently. (I'm not sure how often the "irregular basis" would be, so I'm not sure if "irregular" also meant only once in a while as well as unpredictably.) >Chuck Ferguson Harris Government Information Systems Division >(407) 984-6010 MS: W1/7732 PO Box 98000 Melbourne, FL 32902 >Internet: ferguson@cobra@trantor.harris-atd.com The idea of evaluation of individuals and standardized tests always seems to provoke much debate. Is it due to a lack of other kinds of interactions on this subject, i.e., the lack of commonplace discussion of teaching standards, etc.? In programming the idea of certification and tests is disliked. I think that's due to an immaturity in the profession regarding intelligent discussion of standards for programming practices. If people are uncomfortable with the standards for evaluation, they'll dislike ANY form of it. Speaking only for myself, of course, I am... Scott P. Duncan (duncan@ctt.bellcore.com OR ...!bellcore!ctt!duncan) (Bellcore, 444 Hoes Lane RRC 1H-210, Piscataway, NJ 08854) (201-699-3910 (w) 201-463-3683 (h))