Ambush Evaluations of Teachers By Walt Gardner

Ambush Evaluations of Teachers

Positive lessons about school reform can sometimes be learned from other countries. What England will do beginning in the fall, however, doesn't fall into this category.

According to The Guardian, Ofsted, the office responsible for maintaining standards in education, will make unannounced visits to schools with student behavior problems ("Schools to get surprise Ofsted inspections," Jul. 14). Up until now, such schools usually received prior notice. But critics maintained that the old policy allowed schools to hide what was going on by such strategies as arranging field trips for miscreant students and urging ineffective teachers to call in sick on the day inspectors said they would show up. (Presumably, the new surprise visits will not focus on instruction itself, a big mistake in my view.)

I have no doubt that some teachers put on a dog-and-pony show when they know beforehand that they will be observed. But I question the validity of the inferences that will be drawn when the new strategy is used, whether in England or in the U.S. That's because it's altogether possible for teachers to be effective in achieving their objectives, even though their classrooms may not meet the overt student behavior criteria established by outsiders.

Let's not forget that teachers have their unique styles of instruction. What seems to be chaos in the eyes of external raters may, in fact, be inconsequential. When I was working on my secondary school teaching credential at UCLA, one of the requirements was to observe classes at a local public high school or middle school. I was immediately struck by the diverse classroom environments. If I had been an inspector, I would only have been able to rate the decorum I had seen, which could have been a distraction from what students were actually learning. The two are not necessarily the same, despite what reformers often claim.

A fairer way of evaluating teachers and schools is to collect data from a variety of sources over a stipulated period of time. For example, if student behavior is the most pressing issue, raters need to determine the role that out-of-school factors play. Classroom management techniques can do only so much if students come to school without proper nutrition and rest. It's interesting to note, for example, that the most unruly classes tend to be those scheduled right before lunch (hunger pangs), and the most docile classes tend to be those scheduled when schools first open in the morning (sleep deprivation).

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Comment by Marianne Klepacki on July 20, 2011 at 12:11pm

Out-of-school factors do play a significant role in student performance . I will provide you with resources and research to support your opinions. I am a former clinical dietitian, so I feel comfortable addressing cognitive performance issues related to nutrition.

When students come to school without having any food source to support their blood glucose level, there seems to be support for the idea that it impairs cognitive skills. This has been documented and researched in scholarly articles.

 

 A simple banana for breakfast supplies the blood glucose  needed for  proper brain function, by providing 3 sources of natural simple sugars, fiber to slow down the absorption, and potassium to encourage alertness.   http://www.v-r-a.org/ppp/Bananas/Bananas.htm  A banana does not require food preparation or utensils to be consumed, so it is an easy food to grab for breakfast if a student does not have time for a sit-down breakfast.

 

If you want to know the exact scientific mechanisms:

http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/carbs.html

 

Students' personal habits can affect their cognitive performance.

Research also indicates that about 50% of students do not have adequate iron resources in their blood and this also has been demonstrated to affect cognitive performance. 

Sometimes multiple factors are measured to assess factors affecting cognitive performance, so sleep deprivation, can be another factor studied, with nutritional studies. How much sleep a student receives can affect their decision to eat breakfast in the morning.The amount of sleep a student receives before they attend school affects cognitive performance, as well.

To simplify the following statement in bold, subjects who had low glucose levels, had longer response times, (took longer) to process complex cognitive skills, and this is because of the effect of  glucose levels on the brain. 

If you read more research, it seems that very high glucose levels as well as low glucose levels, detrimentally affect the cognitive areas of the brain used for complex cognitive thought. So too much glucose (simple sugar) and too little ( simple sugar or complex carbohydrates) have negative impacts.

 

"The results indicate that simple motor and perceptual skills were not affected by blood glucose alterations, while more complex cognitive processing required significantly longer response latencies during hypoglycemia. Performance impairments occurred independently of disease duration and control, and without documented neuropathy, underscoring the sensitivity of some cognitive skills to acute glucose fluctuations." This is from an abstract:

Simple versus complex performance impairments at three blood glucose levels*1
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Clarissa S. Holmes, Kathleen M. Koepke and Robert G. Thompson

Department of Pediatrics, The University of Iowa, Hospitals & Clinics, Iowa City, IA 52242, U.S.A.

Received 14 May 1985;  
revised 9 July 1985.  

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