subject: How To Conduct Effective Teacher Performance Evaluations [print this page] How To Conduct Effective Teacher Performance Evaluations
The answer is ridiculously simple: let their bosses (principals and vice-principals) craft and conduct performance assessments, and then hold their employees (teachers) accountable according to a district-wide progressive reward/progressive discipline matrix. Include recognition of relevant challenges in the assessment. High performers will be recognized and rewarded, average teachers will be pressed to improve, and poor teachers will either improve or be fired. The End.
Full disclosure: I am the son of two lifelong educators, and the owner of an adult education business (a language school). I have the utmost respect for committed teachers, who make an immeasurable impact on the lives of their students. However, I also spent two decades in the private sector, much of that as a manager/executive. What I know to be true, of teachers and everyone else, is this: at least 95% of us need someone to help hold us accountable to ensure our best performance.
But of course teachers' unions will never willfully agree to any plan that may lead to a negative performance assessment, let alone progressive discipline of any of the teachers under their protection. This blind protectionism has done more to hurt our children's education in the U.S. than any other issue save parental apathy.
And go ahead: try to defend tenure. Current tenure programs make a mockery of accountability. Especially in states like Nevada, where teachers receive tenure after only ONE year of teaching on average. Talk about tying the hands of the principals! Think about it: principals, like any other manager, want their area of responsibility to show great results. With effective tools such as progressive rewards and progressive discipline at their disposal, they will quickly demand improvements in teaching quality from their teachers. And sorry, but the poor performers will go away due to their own incompetence. Our children will receive better, more passionate instruction and we will all benefit. Isn't that really the goal?
Before the inevitable protests about class size, student poverty and malnutrition, parental apathy, subject matter differences, restrictive rules for teachers, and the raft of other reasons/excuses/justifications for poor teacher and/or student performance: of course such actual challenges exist in our classrooms. The principals and vice-principals will absolutely need to take all of the relevant data in context when conducting the performance reviews. As long as they are sufficiently involved/informed in the day-to-day work the teachers are doing, the reviews will still be valid per actual performance. And their bosses will need to hold them accountable as well.
It is always amazing how well employees (and students, although that is a different topic) perform when they are held to high standards, with clear expectations. And, in the same vein, those who refuse or are simply unable to perform will progressively eliminate themselves through their actions. In addition, not holding poor performers accountable always enrages high performers and, perversely, often discourages them from continuing to go above and beyond for their students and their team.
I know we humans can convince ourselves of anything, no matter how rational or not (I've done an amazing job of that occasionally myself), but the job the unions have done training Americans to believe that we can't trust principals and administrators to effectively assess and hold accountable their teachers is nothing short of mind-boggling. Only in government does that seem to make sense. Like in Henderson, NV, a suburb of Las Vegas: for years the city literally did not conduct performance reviews of their employees. Uh, ok, great idea among undoubtedly many great outcomes of that intelligent practice, imagine their surprise when it cost the city $1.3 million dollars when they fired the city manager for no documented reason after years on the job.
Look - when it comes to knowing which employees are doing well or not, there is simply no substitute or shortcut for the observations of managers who are involved in the day-to-day activities of their employees. Give the managers authority to do their job and we'll be pleasantly surprised at the immediate improvement in outcomes. Also, more high performers will again become interested in teaching, once we have a demonstrated culture of accountability. Anything short of that will result in lip service and the continued downward trend in teacher effectiveness in the U.S.
