Study: Once-a-Year Teacher Evaluations Not Enough to Improve

A study by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation assesses the effectiveness of annual teacher evaluations and shows they simply aren’t enough to improve teaching.

Annual evaluations aren’t enough to help teachers improve — and the infrequent classroom observations are inadequate — says a new study by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

For many school districts across the country, the most common teacher-evaluation method uses a single classroom observation once every few years. The report claims that these scant evaluations have only a 33 percent chance of resulting in an accurate assessment of a teacher.

Tom Kane, deputy director of the Seattle-based foundation’s education program and leader of the research project, says:

“This confirms what many teachers have been saying for years: That when high-stakes decisions are being made, school districts should allow for more than one observation.”

Vicki Phillips, director of the foundation’s education program agrees, saying that teachers aren’t getting enough feedback and are being “left alone” to figure out what they need to do to improve.

The report claims:

High-quality classroom observations need clear, specific standards, well-trained evaluators and multiple observations per teacher
Classroom evaluations should contain student feedback and data on improvement in student test scores
The different evaluation methods aren’t perfect and still need work, but they’re better than what most districts are using now

Memphis Public Schools used to evaluate its teachers this way, but with support from the Gates Foundation and after teachers and administrators set new districtwide standards, the district now uses a system of four to six classroom visits by both principal and peer evaluators.

Kane believes schoolteachers could learn to appreciate student feedback in the same way college professors do.

“One thing I’ve learned is once you show people the questions, much of the hesitance fades away,” he said.

The report concludes that the best way to evaluate teachers is to use data-based methods that rely on students’ standardized test scores along with an updated teacher observation system, writes Howard Blume at the Los Angeles Times.

“The study by the Harvard and Columbia economists found that students enjoyed tangible long-term benefits from teachers who consistently recorded high value-added ratings,” writes Blume.

The report hits home with the importance of good evaluations – replacing a poorly rated teacher could raise a single classroom’s lifetime earnings by about $266,000, the economists estimated.

Comments

Carrie

January 15, 2012 at 6:42 am

What non-educational professionals, including Bill and Melinda Gates don’t take into consideration is that standardized tests are only as accurate as defining the world by one moment in time. Children, no matter what age, will perform according to their wants and needs at that moment. If they are tired, hate reading, despise math, are revolted by science or despise history they are NOT going to perform up to par. If they are tired, upset, angry, or distracted they are NOT going to perform up to par. Even geniuses will only do what they want if it means nothing to them. How do foreigners who have opted out of ESOL rate on these same tests? How can you possibly rate a teacher on how a special needs child performs??? Preposterous!
We need to weed out those who can’t from each profession but stop expecting so much of people who are dealing with the same children that their own parents can’t handle on a daily basis.

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Meredith

January 15, 2012 at 8:24 am

I find the premise of this article, that teachers need more evaluations than they are getting to truly improve, absolutely correct. But I ALWAYS find it suspect to say that the most effective way of judging a teacher’s effectiveness is through their students’ standardized test scores (“value-added”).

Just as smaller class sizes provide an easily observable (if not easily quantifiable) benefit in teaching students, the personal attention and support that an administrator can offer a teacher, in the bounds of a relationship built on trust (rather than high-stakes testing scores, or fussy micromanagement), is essential to creating a culture of GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT within a school.

Teachers aren’t just good or bad. They need support and opportunities to grow, like anyone else.

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Interesting Education Links of the Week

January 15, 2012 at 10:38 pm

[...] new study by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation shows that once a year teacher evaluations aren’t good enough – how much more shocking [...]

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