Robert Marzano on Two Layers of Teacher Evaluation

(Originally titled “The Two Purposes of Teacher Evaluation”)

In this article in Educational Leadership, researcher/author Robert Marzano argues that teacher evaluation should balance two overlapping purposes: measuring teachers’ effectiveness and developing their craft:

• Measuring effectiveness – Marzano identifies 15 items on his list of 41 teacher competencies that he believes are sufficient to quickly evaluate a teacher’s pedagogical skill:

• Providing clear learning goals and scales to measure those goals;
• Tracking student progress;
• Celebrating student success;
• Establishing classroom rules and procedures;
• Identifying critical information;
• Previewing new content;
• Chunking content into digestible bites;
• Elaborating on new information;
• Recording and representing knowledge;
• Reviewing content;
• Examining similarities and differences;
• Examining errors in reasoning;
• Practicing skills, strategies, and processes;
• Noticing when students are not engaged;
• Managing response rates.

These, Marzano believes, provide an efficient evaluation of overall effectiveness but are missing many of the elements needed to help teachers get better.

• Developing teachers’ craft – For this to occur, he says we need a more detailed list and a less frequent process. Developmental evaluation should have three characteristics:

• A comprehensive list of teaching competencies that research says are associated with student achievement (see Marzano’s list below);
• A developmental scale (for example, Not Using, Beginning, Developing, Applying, and Innovating) that allows teachers to pinpoint their current level of performance;
• Acknowledging and rewarding growth; teachers and administrators select specific areas for improvement, set goals, and track progress over time.

Below is Marzano’s full list of 41 criteria (of which the 15 above are a subset). He doesn’t advocate evaluating teachers on all of them each year; rather, he suggests that teachers work their way through the criteria over several years. The list has three broad areas:

Routine strategies:

1. Providing clear learning goals and scales to measure those goals;
2. Tracking student progress;
3. Celebrating student success;
4. Establishing classroom rules and procedures;
5. Organizing the physical layout of the classroom;

Content strategies:

1. Identifying critical information;
2. Organizing students to interact with new knowledge;
3. Previewing new content;
4. Chunking content into digestible bites;
5. Processing new information;
6. Elaborating on new information;
7. Recording and representing knowledge;
8. Reflecting on learning;
9. Reviewing content;
10. Organizing students to practice and deepen knowledge;
11. Using homework;
12. Examining similarities and differences;
13. Examining errors in reasoning;
14. Practicing skills, strategies, and processes;
15. Revising knowledge;
16. Organizing students for cognitively complex tasks;
17. Engaging students in cognitively complex tasks involving hypothesis generation and testing;
18. Providing resources and guidance;

Strategies enacted on the spot:

1. Noticing when students are not engaged;
2. Using academic games;
3. Managing response rates;
4. Using physical movement;
5. Maintaining a lively pace;
6. Demonstrating intensity and enthusiasm;
7. Using friendly controversy;
8. Providing opportunities for students to talk about themselves;
9. Presenting unusual or intriguing information;
10. Demonstrating “withitness”
11. Applying consequences for lack of adherence to rules and procedures;
12. Acknowledging adherence to rules and procedures;
13. Understanding students’ interests and backgrounds;
14. Using verbal and nonverbal behaviors that indicate affection for students;
15. Displaying objectivity and control;
16. Demonstrating value and respect for low-expectancy students;
17. Asking questions of low-expectancy students;
18. Probing incorrect answers with low-expectancy students.

“The Two Purposes of Teacher Evaluation” by Robert Marzano in Educational Leadership, November 2012 (Vol. 70, #3, p. 14-19), http://www.ascd.org; Marzano can be reached at robert.marzano@marzanoresearch.com. 

From the Marshall Memo #459