The New York Times editorial pages are praising a new system for teacher evaluation that the New Haven school system has tentatively worked out in cooperation with The American Federation of Teachers. In other words, unlike, say, UTLA and LAUSD, which appear to get nothing done in this realm, in New Haven the union and the district have stopped squabbling and have, instead, tossed out the old rules and have come up with a new method that everyone seems to think will benefit both students and teachers. (Whatta concept!)
Here’s a clip from what the NY Times had to say:
To improve the quality of schools, districts need a rigorous system for evaluating the quality of teaching — rewarding teachers who do their jobs best and retraining or removing those who fail their students. The city of New Haven and the American Federation of Teachers deserve high praise for the new teacher training and evaluation system they unveiled earlier this week.
[SNIP]
In most schools today, teacher evaluations are not worthy of the name. An administrator typically observes the teacher at work once or twice during the year. Nearly every teacher passes — even at the most dismal schools. Struggling teachers rarely get the help they need to improve. Once they are tenured, it is nearly impossible to dislodge them.
The New Haven system would completely rebuild the evaluation process. Instructional managers, mainly principals and assistant principals, will be assigned to teachers to help them lay out academic goals and development plans. These managers will then meet with the teachers throughout the year to give detailed feedback.
At the end of the year, teachers will receive a rating, on a 1-to-5 scale, based on how much students learn, how well teachers do their jobs and how well they collaborate with colleagues.
There’s lots more so read the rest.
Good stuff. Thanks