Unfortunately, and despite what appears to be a concerted effort across the last several decades, the assumption that a picture of educator skill and practice can be gained through observation, alone, simply doesn't work. In the final analysis, this simplistic approach to teacher evaluation most certainly results in neither teacher improvement nor increased accountability. Teachers don't value or trust their own evaluation, administrators view it as merely one more bureaucratic hurdle to check off, and it has no credibility with parents and other stakeholders.
So, what can we do about the abysmal state of teacher evaluation? Firstly, we need to recognize what's wrong and, secondly, we need to fix it. In the first post in this series, I discussed how observation does not equal evaluation. Today's post is about purposeful, data-driven evaluation.
The Problem: Osmosis
os•mo•sis
Pronunciation: \äz-ˈmō-səs, äs-\
Function: noun
Definition: a process of absorption or diffusion suggestive of the flow of osmotic action; a usually effortless, often unconscious, assimilation
Example: learned a number of languages by osmosis
(Adapted from Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, 2010)
What's Wrong
Merely walking through the classroom occasionally doesn't constitute evaluation. That kind of minimalist