6/27/2011 6:00:00 AMFixing Teacher Evaluation Process Involves More Than Merit Pay

June 27, 2011

Share Efforts by the Kasich administration and legislators to tie teacher pay to performance – has generated a hot debate in Ohio. The strongest opposition is from teachers and their unions. The proposed change goes against decades of teacher contracts and law which have mandated that teacher raises occur automatically, based on years of service and credentials. How much students are learning hasn’t been a factor when it comes to teacher pay. But teachers do get evaluated nonetheless and that experience may be a key to understanding why so many teachers are fearful about having evaluations in the future be tied to pay. Ideastream’s Michelle Kanu explains.

Sue Myers, a 27-year veteran teacher in the Cleveland Schools, has never really liked meeting with her principal to discuss how well she’s doing her job.

Myers: “I think that I’ve always felt nervous about the process, probably because I didn’t feel it was really objective.  I felt like it was more of a ‘gotcha’ kind of thing.”

Myers contends the existing evaluation process doesn’t give enough details about how teachers can get better.

Myers: “Our current evaluation system has about seven areas that measure teaching.  And the language around them is not specific enough.  You could interpret it one way, and I could interpret it another way.”

The frustration is shared by some school administrators, including Cleveland Schools chief of staff Christine Fowler Mack. 

Fowler-Mack: “Any of the national research would indicate that broadly, teacher evaluation systems in schools don’t work.  They focus very narrowly on a few things, they give teachers vague feedback.  Usually it’s a process done to teachers, and not with teachers in mind.”

Cleveland says it’s serious about wanting to improve the evaluation process.  Fowler-Mack is spearheading the effort for the school administration along with Mary Ann Frederick, director of negotiations with the Cleveland Teachers Union. Both say there’s a simple reason neither party attempted to change the evaluation process in the past.

Frederick: “Tradition.”

Fowler-Mack: “I do think it’s rooted in tradition. It’s the way things have been done.”

Both also agree that continuing to grade teachers the same way will not lead to better results in student learning.  The administration says they have to tie teacher performance to student achievement…and the union, agrees.  Student test scores is one way to evaluate teachers but exactly how to use them and determining what other measures of student performance should be employed…that’s the sticky wicket of this “good will” effort.

Fowler-Mack says they’re planning to pilot a new system this fall that will asses teachers based on how much their students learn within a year – it’s not a pass/fail evaluation; more like actual school grades; a way to look at progress made instead of meeting a uniform standard; the pilot program will also consider the different subjects and grade levels instructors teach.

Fowler-Mack: “It doesn’t treat all teachers the same.  It really is more diagnostic about where a teacher is and what practice looks like at that stage and provides for the support.”

Union negotiator Frederick says the new grading system sets a high bar for teachers to receive an A, and that may be hard for some to accept.

Frederick: “We’re going to have a lot of teachers who have a hard time with not receiving distinguished in everything because they’re used to this excellent thing.  And I’ve often told teachers we’re all going to have to get over ourselves and understand that distinguished is THe…the wings you get at the end at the pearly gates.  It’s not something you get automatically and achieve all the time.”

Another search for change in teacher evaluation can be found in Lorain City Schools.

Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson says when she took over the district four years ago, she noticed the teachers seemed almost afraid of being evaluated, so she started pulling groups of them together to figure out why.

Atkinson: “There were a couple of things that stood out.  One was that ‘I need feedback on a more regular basis, not once at the end of the year.’”

Atkinson says now she asks principals to observe teachers more often than the typical once-a-year, formal, review and give them informal suggestions to deliver their lessons better.  She says now the teachers’ morale and attitudes are starting to change:

Atkinson: “And there’s no more gotcha, it’s about improvement.”

A small number of other school systems across the state are also taking what some administrators call “baby steps” towards “trust building” and more effective teacher evaluation.  But that slow train to reform may soon be surpassed by another train rolling out of Columbus…the train carrying the message that significant improvement in teacher performance won’t come until evaluations are directly connected to pay.