Dive Brief:

• John Wink, superintendent of Blue Ridge Independent School District in Texas, identifies seven things teachers need to do or have to achieve excellence, and he says school leaders have a responsibility to create the conditions that pave their way.
• According to eSchool News, Wink breaks out the needs into two sections, with the first being in the classroom, creating the proper learning environment: Teachers need to use resources to support every student, create routines and procedures that teach students responsibility and leadership, inspire them to embrace the content, and engage them.
• From there, teachers need a good schoolwide system focused on improving teacher effectiveness, collaboration time with colleagues and an individualized improvement plan.

Dive Insight:

In schools, unlike virtually any other industry, performance reviews are public and, for more than a decade, they have been more punitive than improvement-focused. Under No Child Left Behind, the logic of teacher evaluations was to identify low-performers. The Every Student Succeeds Act does not require schools to evaluate teachers anymore. But it would be a major loss to the field if teacher evaluations went out the window. Instead, schools should take a page from other industries.

Evaluations can be an opportunity for constructive feedback and create a source for continual improvement. Information that comes out of such performance reviews can be fed directly into personalized professional learning plans. While administrators need to take a role in teacher development, teacher leaders should also pitch in. There is simply not enough time for administrators to conduct multiple evaluations per year, yet many teachers want more regular feedback, and their colleagues are well-positioned to provide it.

Recommended Reading

eSchool News: How schools can help teachers reach instructional excellence 
Education Dive: Teacher evaluations no longer required, but useful with changes