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How should teachers' effectiveness be judged?

Created By:	sharonelin
Created Date:	03/19/2009 (46 weeks ago)
Last Voted:	05/08/2009 (39 weeks ago)
No. of Votes:	30
Status:	Open

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teaching

		By students' standardized test scores 2 Votes (7%)
		By parents' votes 0 Votes (0%)
		By formal observations with a rubric by administrators 14 Votes (47%)
		By peer observations with a rubric 14 Votes (47%)
		By tenure 0 Votes (0%)

Country		Votes	%
	US	29	96.67%
	AU	1	3.33%

2 Comments

Sharon Elin

03/19/2009 (46 weeks ago)

Gordon, yes, I agree totally! This is certainly not a question that has a single answer or just a limited pool of choices for answers. My hope by posting this poll is to provoke more thought and discussion about the issue of performance review for teachers. In some districts, there really is no performance review; tenure and a minimum "performance" evaluation judges teachers from year to year. In these cases, the evaluation forms usually grade objective factors such as attendance, punctuality, etc. but do not attempt to address a teacher's teaching style, effectiveness, or contribution to the mission of the educational system. My question, basically, asks whether this is enough. Underlying all of these questions and choices is the basic premise that we need to identify ineffective teachers and either supportively remediate and retrain them or eliminate them from the system. In my opinion, we have allowed mediocre teachers to remain in place and it is detrimental to our students' success.

Gordon

03/19/2009 (46 weeks ago)

Interesting question, would like to have an opportunity for blended answers. When evaluating teachers' effectiveness I believe there should be a mix of test scores, student portfolios, parents opinions, administrators with a rubric, peer observations only if with a rubric, plus students ability to apply skills learned 6 to 12 months later. There are so many variables, it is one of those things you can't answer with a yes or no vote.