The evaluator strikes again - The Boston Globe

The evaluator strikes again

How can a walk-through, no-questions-asked visit produce an informed opinion?

November 22, 2010

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IN 2005, a state Department of Education representative visited my class and demonstrated professional courtesy as he asked precise, probing questions not only about my lesson plan but also about my prior lessons, my plans for subsequent lessons, and about our school’s teacher-evaluation process.

This prompted me to remember and to reflect on my many less-positive experiences with the evaluation process over the years. Done right, teacher evaluation is a crucial step in ensuring that teachers meet high standards in getting their students to learn. Too often, though, the trend is for evaluators to creep up on a teacher, chomp on thin slices of a lesson while on the move, and make snap judgments on what is happening or not happening in a particular class at a particular time.

I recall my first formal evaluation in 1984 when I was informed by my supervisor of my impending classroom observation. He instructed me to leave my classroom door ajar on a particular day during a specific period, since he did not want to cause a major disruption of my class. I prepared and braced myself. I was concerned, expectant, but calm. I left the door ajar. At one point during

Monday, November 22, 2010