What's Wrong with Teacher Evaluation and How to Fix It: Observation Equals Evaluation — Whole Child Education

What's Wrong with Teacher Evaluation and How to Fix It: Observation Equals Evaluation — Whole Child Education:

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What’s Wrong with Teacher Evaluation and How to Fix It: Observation Equals Evaluation

November 13, 2012 by James H. Stronge

So, where do we begin?

Teacher evaluation, throughout most of our recent history, has been practiced religiously with the intent—or, at least, hope—that it will improve performance. The assumption underlying much of teacher evaluation practice goes something like this:

Teacher Observation = Teacher Evaluation = Teacher Improvement

We know that this system does not work. A picture of educator skill and practice cannot be gained through observation alone and not all evaluation processes promote professional growth and affect student achievement. In this series of blog posts, I attempt to offer an analysis of three contemporary teacher evaluation practices within a problem/solution framework.

What can we do about the abysmal state of teacher evaluation? Firstly, we need to recognize what's wrong