Wednesday, January 23, 2013 Pg.18
State’s new teacher evaluation system promising but time consuming
By Sharee Wanner
Staff writer
According
to Box Elder School District officials, the new Utah State Office of Education’s
educator and administrator evaluation system being tested in the district has
potential, but some changes would need to be made for it to be truly effective.
District
Superintendent Ron Wolff said the new evaluation system “will make a
difference if the program is implemented correctly and with fidelity,” however,
while the new system provides better feedback for teachers and administrators,
and will help implement goals to improve education throughout all of Utah’s
schools, it takes a significant amount of time.
“I
believe that we’ll need to take a ‘wait and see’ approach regarding the value
in relationship to effort, while working hard to provide the USOE with the
input they need to make adjustments,” Wolff said, adding, “It is much better
than what we’re currently using.”
Assistant
Superintendent Terry Jackson said it is premature to say what the effects will
be long term for the teachers, but for the administrators it’s a lot of work
so far.
Given the
in-depth and labor-intensive nature of the new program, it has the potential
to be nearly another full-time job for school principals. New teachers must
receive full evaluations for the first three years of their employments, and
teachers with four or more years need to have partial evaluations every other
year. Evaluations are done by the administration personally. They document
each observation—which means extra time to fill out the necessary paperwork and
input data gathered on each teacher.
For
teachers, the new program is divided into ten standards: learner development,
learning differences, learning environments, content knowledge, assessment,
instructional planning, instructional strategies, reflection and continuous
growth, leadership and collaboration, and professional and ethical behavior.
On the
administrative level, there are six dispositions or standards: visionary
leadership, teaching and learning, management for learning, community
collaboration, ethical leadership and system leadership.
The new
evaluation system is one part of a three-part system to hold teachers and
administrators accountable for the education student’s receive. The evaluation
will affect not only salaries, but could hold implications for their employment
as well.
The
district will also start piloting the second aspect of the evaluation program
this spring. The second elements are surveys given to students and parents regarding
educator effectiveness. A third element, a new system to judge student
progress, will be developed and implemented before the spring of 2015. The
process for evaluating student progress is essential to the total package,
Wolff said.
Box Elder
School District is one of six districts in the state to be a part of the new
Utah Educational Leadership Standards and the Utah Effective Teaching
Standards program. Within the district, all but four schools have volunteered
to be part of the two year pilot program that will evaluate and assess teacher
and administrator performance.
Those
involved will provide the state with input of what’s working and what’s not so
the program can be more effective.
The state
will then make changes based on the input. Some of them are simple, such as
formatting changes in the rubric. Content won’t be changed as much as editing
details and bugs in the system. The input received by the state is being
reviewed and evaluated, and may be adjusted by the individual school as time
progresses.
Box Elder
Middle School Principal Jason Sparks said most of the problems he’s seen with
the program are editing issues. Others are issues with the computer program.
He said the program itself is fairly user friendly. He can use his iPad to take
notes on the teacher as he observes and with the touch of an icon, he can refer
back to the standards, and even load evaluations to state servers from the tablet.
“The
extra work of learning the new system is worth the effort, however,” Sparks
said. “It gives teacher’s concrete expectations. Their current level of
teaching is assessed and they have higher levels to aspire to.” Not every
teacher will be expected to be at the highest level at first. They will
continue to learn.
As the
program is developed within the district, the teachers will become more
familiar with what it entails. There are just a few that have been selected for
this first year of the program.
Evaluations
take place twice each school year; November through December and January
through February. During each period, administrators observe the teachers in
formal and informal visits to their classrooms. The evaluation standards are
uniform. Because of the impact an evaluation has on the salary and employment
of each individual; accurate documentation is of utmost importance.
Superintendent
Wolff said the evaluations have two primary purposes, the first, and most
important, is to identify areas where educators can grow and then monitor
their development. The second is to place each educator into one of four
categories that could impact his/her continued employment, as well as potential
increases in pay.
There is
also self-assessment that is taken by each teacher and administrator. Combined
with the administrative evaluation, the self-assessment determines whether or
not they will get a raise and if their employment will continue.
The
evaluation process provides opportunities for individuals to assess where
they are, look at what they’re doing well and set goals to help them improve.
Jackson
said, “Look at it as an opportunity for growth and professional development,
not a hoop to check off.”
Superintendent Wolff,
Jackson and MaryKay Kirkland are working with administrators and teachers
throughout Box Elder School District to implement the new state requirements
by the 2014-2015 school year
