We have two bright, energetic, compassionate vice principals at our school this year. I get from them that they want to ease our fears about the new Educator Evaluation System. After a training, one of them sent out a link to us in case we were interested in learning more about the developer of the Tripod Student Survey, Dr. Ron Ferguson, of Harvard. I did.
One of the agreements made with the Hawaii DoE when we ratified the contract was that the evaluation tool would be fair, transparent, equitable and comprehensive, that there would be recognition that there are factors affecting student achievement that are not within control of the teacher, and that the evaluation be based on multiple, valid measures. As we embark on the implementation of this new system, we will need to determine whether or not these agreements are being honored.
Experiencing the ill effects of No Child Left Behind, I have long been skeptical of attempts to "reform" public education. I always said that it hit us from behind when we weren't looking and that we need to keep our eyes wide open so that we don't get hit again. I was livid when I read our Race to the Top application and had to be assured that we, HSTA, did not necessarily agree to the details of the application, we just agreed to be part of the process, which included agreeing to a new evaluation system.
So the Tripod Student Survey is 10% of our evaluation, the least of our worries, I guess. Tripod refers to content knowledge, pedagogic skill, and relationships; these components of our professional practice are to be exposed by student responses to surveys.
(Photo below is a moment of cooperation.)
On the surface and listening to teachers' stories in the pilot schools, it seems ridiculous. How in the world can students accurately evaluate their teachers? One of the stories I heard was from a kindergarten teacher who scored low on one question: "Does your teacher push you to succeed?" The kids all said no, because their teacher never pushes them.
The article written by Dr. Ferguson, in Kappan, an education journal, describes the components of the student survey. He claims that the correlation between the results have been validated by the Measures of Effective Teaching Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That, in itself, shouldn't be a reason for discrediting the research (although that is my knee-jerk reaction), but it does send up red flags. I am not convinced that the research is valid and reliable. Just because someone says it is doesn't mean it is, even if the names Harvard and Gates are attached to it. There has been criticism of the Gates MET report by others more qualified than me. ( http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-MET-final-2013 )
However, the basis of the survey is not nefarious - IF there was a way to be certain that the survey does in fact measure what it sets out to measure. What it sets out to measure are good things, called the 7 Cs. Yes, I want to be the teacher who Cares, who can Control her classroom, who can Clarify and clear up confusion. I want to be a teacher who Challenges students, who can Captivate and engage my students. I want to be a teacher who Confers with students and encourages them to speak and ask questions; and I want to be a teacher who knows how to Consolidate my students' learning so that they remember what they learned. I agree that these are admirable qualities of my professionalism, for which I do have room for growth, of course.
I see two problems. One, I don't believe that it is validated by research. Therefore, I don't have faith that it will give an accurate accounting of these qualities. However, I will still aim to be this ideal 7C teacher. Two, I am not convinced that any teacher who gets rated high on these measures will be able to do much better than me with some of my most challenging students. I do have some challenging students. I care about them, but it is a challenge controlling them. I am open to someone who thinks they are masters at control to come into my classroom and show me how they would handle them (and at the same time have a handle on the other 6 Cs and teach to the "standards").
The saving grace about this piece, is that it is only 10%, which was less than what the Department had wanted (or so I've been told). Dr. Ferguson does recommend that the Tripod, or any evaluation measure, be a part of multiple measures, otherwise high stakes will tend to distort the results. So, Hawaii teachers, we do have multiple measures, which is why we have multiple trainings on them. But whether or not it's all good, or even mostly good, is yet to be determined. Multiple invalid measures are still invalid.
No comments:
Post a Comment