Are New Teacher-Evaluation Systems Making a Difference?

In this front-page New York Times story, Jenny Anderson reports that new teacher-evaluation programs in a number of states, set up to provide a more honest assessment of classroom effectiveness, are falling into the same pattern as the much-criticized systems they replaced – that is, almost all teachers are scoring high:

• In Tennessee, 98 percent of teachers were rated At Expectations;
• In Michigan, 98 percent of teachers were rated Effective or better;
• In Florida, 97 percent of teachers were rated Effective or Highly Effective;
• In New Haven, Connecticut, 90 percent of teachers were rated Exemplary, Strong, or Effective and 2 percent received the lowest rating, Needs Improvement.
• In Washington, D.C., 89 percent of teachers were rated Highly Effective or Effective, 10 percent were Minimally Effective, and 1 percent got the bottom rating. (Officials in D.C. say that 400 teachers have been fired using its new system and several hundred have left after receiving low ratings.)

“Advocates of education reform concede that such rosy numbers, after many millions of dollars developing the new systems and thousands of hours of training, are worrisome,” says Anderson. Grover Norquist of the Brookings Institution is more blunt: “It would be an unusual profession that at least 5 percent are not deemed ineffective.” 

What’s going on? Some believe that principals are too chummy with their staffs and are hesitant to give mediocre or low ratings. Others say it’s because the test-score component of teacher evaluation being implemented in many districts is too lenient as standards and tests keep shifting. “We have changed proficiency standards 21 times in the last six years,” says Jackie Pons, superintendent in Leon County, Florida. “How can you evaluate someone in a system when you change your levels all the time?” One hundred percent of teachers in this district were rated Highly Effective or Effective. 

The classroom observation component of teachers’ evaluations can be pulled up by the inflated test-score component in some states, undermining principals’ critical evaluations of classroom performance. “It’s inconsistent, it’s unfair, and it’s unscientific,” says Dan Boyd, superintendent in Alachua, Florida. 

In Michigan, .8 percent of teachers were rated Ineffective last year. Joseph Martineau of the Bureau of Assessment and Accountability noted that this translates to nearly 800 teachers who might lose their jobs. “There’s a possibility, a real possibility, that students will have a more-effective teacher,” he says.

“Curious Grade for Teachers: Nearly All Pass” by Jenny Anderson in The New York Times, Mar. 31, 2013 (p. 1, 4), http://nyti.ms/YUv9lt 

From the Marshall Memo #479