Hello Measures Team- We are getting closer to the September 14th date for getting recommendations in to Hope Street Group.  This blog is a discussion about getting to the next step.  I’ll apologize up front for the length, but we have a great team with members at all different points in the process (welcome those that joined today)!  So…this is our attempt to get everyone on the same page and move ahead!

We know that what is needed is a credible system for measuring the quality of teachers' work, a comprehensive evaluation system. We all seem to agree that this system will need to address the quality of instruction as well as results of student achievement.  How can we get our arms around this idea and make some contributions as a team? We've been working in sub-teams to discuss and research these questions:

1. What student-level measures (test scores, other student work) would be useful? Why?? Are there any innovative practices in this area?

2. What classroom-level measures (observations, etc.) would be useful? Why?? Are there any innovative practices in this area?

3. What school-level data would be useful? Why?? Are there any innovative practices in this area?

There has been a great deal of discussion and research shared and I will summarize some of it in a bit (please add to the blog anything you would like included).  The next step will be for us to take this discussion about the problems and possible solutions for measuring at the student, classroom, school levels, and craft policy recommendations to be shared with stakeholders and decision makers.  We do not have to solve every foreseeable issue or provide all of the minute details, but this is our opportunity to share what we think should be included in the process and guidelines so that when the decision makers get down to the details within a context of a specific situation our recommendations set the backdrop.  See the template attachment for an example (Policy Recommendations Template ).  Remember our audience- many of the people these recommendations will be going to are not familiar with the problems or the important things to keep in mind while setting policy- the very issues that you are all experts in.  Hope Street Group wants to “be able to present policy recommendations and say educators, researchers, other professionals (us) agree that this is where we need to be going.”

At this point a good approach may be to look at this issue through a couple of lenses:

1.   What is effective teaching and how do we evaluate it?

2.   Problems with the current system(s) and possible solutions.

We are thinking that by looking through these two lenses the policy recommendations will jump right out at us and practically write themselves!  Maybe not quite that easy but… our task is to think about what would be pivotal and essential to building an effective teacher evaluation system, specifically with regard to measures.

So…What is an effective teacher?  This was one of the original discussion threads and I will copy the summary of the groups’ thoughts that Sarah posted last week:

The overall consensus is that “no teacher is effective unless students are growing.” Effective teachers can specifically contribute to this growth by:

Teaching their students to problem solve, perform research and wrestle with the challenges of discovery;

Adapt their teaching to the needs of students;

Spend time developing the strengths of individual students;

Have high expectations for students and believe in finding the right balance between pushing students too far and nudging them to go beyond their comfort zone to the next level of learning;

Use engagement strategies and stimulating approaches to motivate and excite students to learn;

Use techniques to bridge the distance between students and teacher;

Respect that the unique and individual relationship between teacher and student determines the learning dynamic.

Encouraging students to have fun and be comfortable with learning and taking risks, and are able to apply what they’ve learned

What measures come to mind?  What discussions that we have had address these “contributions?”

And… problems with the current system?  I will not take the space to include all of the issues being discussed, but will include some of the overarching issues.

Measures are currently based on:

·      student achievement data from standardized test scores (Do you want me to list the possible equity issues with class size, high demand schools, special needs students?)

·      percentage of students at mastery of state standards (inconsistency of state to state and state to national)

·      credentials earned by teachers (research shows no correlation between highly credentialed teachers and student achievement)

·      “Drive-by” observations (or if teaching long enough NO observation) of practice that may rate things as arbitrary as start time, appearance, etc

·      evaluations provided by administrators with little knowledge of “best practices”

·      evaluations without reflection or feedback (no pathway for improving practice)

·      limited knowledge of teacher impact on student growth

So…keeping those two lenses in mind

1.   What is effective teaching and how do we evaluate it?

2.   Problems with the current system(s) and possible solutions.

What are some possible “solutions” or recommendations for how to approach this idea of measuring effective teaching.

I am going to list (randomly) some of the ideas being discussed.  Please think about these discussions you’ve been having.  Do you see some of these as possible recommendations or several of them combined as a policy recommendation?  Our next job will be to distill down our discussions and craft policy recommendations that will include any related innovative practices and related research that can back up the recommendation or provide a credible reference.  Please think through the information in this blog and be ready to discuss those close to your heart!

Ideas being discussed:

·      Evaluations including student achievement and quality of instruction data

·      the need for multiple measures

·      the need for varied measures

·      the need for multiple evaluators

·      improving inter-rater reliability- the need for consistently trained evaluators

·      including student work

·      Different approaches to value-added measures

·      Using teaching standards to evaluate instruction (consistency in definition of quality teaching)

·      including teacher reflections about student work and/or instructional moves

·      portfolios- teacher

·      portfolios- student

·      Smart Goals

·      Data Folders

·      Comprehensive checklist or rubric for teacher observation/evals

·      Videos

·      Essays

·      Evaluations to strengthen teaching (paths for improving- coaching, peer review, etc)

·      Student surveys

·      Parent surveys

·      Teacher surveys

·      Trained district evaluation teams

·      Using consistent measures but altering expectations about how different groups perform in different situations (not perfect but addresses some of the equity issues)

·      Documentation of varied teaching techniques to accommodate students- differentiation in general

·      Authentic assessments versus or in addition to standardized testing

·      Weighting results

·      Master/mentor teachers to build capacity and evaluating all involved

·      Staffing and training to meet increased needs and responsibilities of a comprehensive evaluation system (implementation issue?)

·      Electronic portfolios

·      Professional growth plans

We encourage you to start writing or typing.  Please think about how you see these recommendations being organized and record ideas around at least two recommendations to be shared during our conference call.

Recommendation:

Related innovative practices:

Related research:

We look forward to talking with you soon!  Darcy and Dina