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D.C. schools to use data from teacher evaluation system in new ways
Although the main purpose of the District’s new teacher evaluation system is to rate teachers’ effectiveness, officials are beginning to use the fresh troves of data it generates for other purposes, such as assessing administrators and determining which universities produce the best- or least-prepared teachers, reports the Washington Post.
“There are hundreds of human capital questions you need to answer to effectively run a school district,” said Jason Kamras, personnel chief for D.C. public schools and the main architect behind the evaluation system, called IMPACT. “And for the first time, we have really good data allowing us to answer those questions. There is a bigger picture we are now able to understand.”
Across the country, education reformers have been pressing for more rigorous, quantifiable ways to evaluate teachers, and the District’s new system is in the vanguard of that movement, even as unions and education experts question its merits. Now in its second year, IMPACT uses five classroom observations to rate how effective a teacher is in nine standards – including explaining content clearly and engaging students – deemed essential to good teaching. Certain teachers are also judged on whether their students’ test scores sufficiently improve – a metric known as “value-added.” All of the numbers are crunched into a teacher’s annual rating, ranging from ineffective to highly effective…
One Response to D.C. schools to use data from teacher evaluation system in new ways
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anneanderson
February 14, 2011 at 7:29 pm
I believe too much “added value” is given to students’ test scores. Students have bad days taking test like teachers have bad days at teaching. However, I do think it is very important that teachers are evaluated on how well they engaged their students, teach high order thinking skills, etc. However,now that we are going to “Common Core Standards” , I do believe that universities and colleges will have to go to “Common Core courses for Teachers in grades K-12″. There also must be some continuity between high school and college. Schools are now pushing ” inquiry based learning, project-based learning, hands-on learning, technology, etc. but colleges and universitiesare still teaching the way they use to teach, that is lecture, lecture, lecture with a few term papers interspersed there in. Then we ask teachers that have just graduated to come in and start doing the former. I do not think so.
Eventually there must be a “seamless” transition from high school to college.
anneanderson
February 14, 2011 at 7:29 pm
I believe too much “added value” is given to students’ test scores. Students have bad days taking test like teachers have bad days at teaching. However, I do think it is very important that teachers are evaluated on how well they engaged their students, teach high order thinking skills, etc. However,now that we are going to “Common Core Standards” , I do believe that universities and colleges will have to go to “Common Core courses for Teachers in grades K-12″. There also must be some continuity between high school and college. Schools are now pushing ” inquiry based learning, project-based learning, hands-on learning, technology, etc. but colleges and universitiesare still teaching the way they use to teach, that is lecture, lecture, lecture with a few term papers interspersed there in. Then we ask teachers that have just graduated to come in and start doing the former. I do not think so.
Eventually there must be a “seamless” transition from high school to college.