The use and misuse of teacher appraisal - Education International

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EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL the professional growth of the teachers. Indeed, the NEA has set out a comprehensive whole-system approach to teacher evaluation and assessment (2010). Box 4. Teacher Evaluation and Development (TED) in NY State TED, a system of Teacher Evaluation and Development, was created by six labor/management Innovation Teams across New York State to integrate evaluations in a continuum that advances teacher practice and student learning. Supported by grants from the American Federation of Teachers and the U.S. Department of Education, TED is based on cutting-edge research, is aligned with New York State legislation and has been field-tested in districts whose visionary leaders committed immeasurable time and intellectual capital to this project. All involved are dedicated to “doing it right”, creating a quality system that will shape and inform the next generation of teacher evaluation. The TED system is unique because it: • Establishes teachers as participants in, not recipients of, their own evaluations • Aligns with New York State Teaching Standards and the NYSUT Teacher Practice Rubric (herein referred to as the Teacher Practice Rubric) to delineate multiple measures of teacher effectiveness • Provides for evaluations to serve as stepping stones to meaningful professional dialogue and continued development • Details a practitioner-developed and field-tested process for Peer Assistance and Review that seamlessly integrates evaluation and professional development • Incorporates the necessity of documenting and addressing conditions of teaching and learning • Requires training of practitioners and evaluators to optimize use of the system Source: TED Handbook - An integrated system for advancing teacher growth and student learning, developed by labor/management Innovation Initiative Teams www.nysut.org/ted Teachers’ unions have recently engaged in discussions on best practice in appraisals, whilst continuing to resist linking student achievement determined by standardised tests to high-stakes teacher appraisal systems. 38 Box 5. The Teacher Advancement Program The Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), based on the standards of the National Board and InTASC, as well as the standards-based assessment rubrics developed in Connecticut, ensures that teachers are evaluated four to six times a year by master or mentor teachers or principals who have been trained and certified in a rigorous four-day training programme. Indicators of good teaching refer to practices that have been found to be associated with desired student outcomes. Teachers also study the rubric and its implications for teaching and learning, look at and evaluate videotaped teaching episodes using the rubric, and engage in practice evaluations. After each observation, evaluator and teacher meet to discuss the findings and to make a plan for ongoing growth. Ongoing professional development, mentoring, and classroom support are provided to help teachers meet these standards. Teachers in TAP schools report that this system, along with the intensive professional development offered, is substantially responsible for improvements in their practice and the gains in student achievement that have occurred in many TAP schools. See also http://www.infoagepub.com/products/downloads/tap_overview.pdf
T H E U S E A N D M I S U S E O F T E A C H E R A P P R A I S A L 2.2. An overview of teacher appraisal arrangements. In most jurisdictions, teacher appraisal methods encompass: (a) self-evaluation; (b) peer and school-leader evaluation; (c) student (and, less frequently, parent) surveys/assessment; (d) external evaluation through inspectors, inspection authorities, assessment centres; and, recently, (e) student-performance test scores. Among countries involved in the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), appraisal arrangements tend to be generated more often from within the school than from an external source. For instance, over three-quarters of teachers in Norway and Portugal do not normally receive feedback from an external agent. In Italy, external teacher appraisal is virtually non-existent (OECD TALIS, 2009). Across countries, appraisal is carried out using a range of methods. These range from a more formal, objective approach (e.g. as part of a formal performance management system, involving set procedures and criteria) to a more informal, subjective one (e.g. informal discussions with the teacher, interviews and definition of individual professional development plans) (OECD TALIS, 2009). Criteria typically include the subject and pedagogical knowledge of the teacher, some assessment of teaching methods, levels of in-service training and, increasingly, measures of student performance through standardised tests. In many European countries, teachers are not individually appraised through commonly set procedures within external school evaluation arrangements – a finding confirmed by Eurydice’s latest key data on education in Europe. However, in several of these countries, teachers may be evaluated in specific circumstances (Eurydice, 2012). In Estonia, Ireland and Spain, teachers are assessed when applying for promotion or at the beginning of their career. In Ireland, the inspectorate also evaluates teachers at the request of the school management board. In the Nordic countries, teachers are not evaluated individually, or (in Denmark) not subject to external individual evaluation. Internal evaluation occurs in all the countries surveyed to a varying degree, but is not always mandatory. With the exception of a small number of countries such as England, Wales and Iceland, school evaluation systems are centred mainly on local authorities and boards, responsible for evaluating their own educational provision (for instance Denmark and Norway, where local authorities have a duty to evaluate each school individually). Teacher appraisal is often linked with career progression and changes in a teacher’s responsibilities (although to a varying degree), and connected to further opportunities for (in-service) professional development. The link with salary and pay progression is not homogeneous: the link exists in Sweden, the UK, the US, and Korea, but not in Italy, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, France, or Norway, for example. 39
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The use and misuse of teacher appraisal - Education International

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