alignment of teacher evaluation to the school improvement process
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Alignment of Teacher Evaluation to the School Improvement Process. Dr. Kathleen M. Smith Almost Former Director of the Office Of School Improvement Retiring July 31, 2014. Introduction. How were the academic reviews different this year? - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Alignment of Teacher Evaluation to the School Improvement Process
Dr. Kathleen M. Smith
Almost Former Director of the Office Of School Improvement
Retiring July 31, 2014
Introduction
How were the academic reviews different this year?
What were the findings of the academic reviews held throughout the state last year?
How can the findings of the academic review be used to implement action steps?
What are the barriers to implementing these steps?
What will happen if the steps are not implemented?
How were the academic reviews different?
Focus was on the alignment of the written, taught and tested curricula.
Reviews were not on site at each school but held at the division with core division teams selected by the division.
Examined and evaluated, against a set of rubrics designed by Stronge and Associates, a core collection of documents from the division’s schools accredited with warning (lesson plans, completed observation forms, observation schedules, curricula guides, unit tests).
Why not benchmark tests?
How many divisions received an academic review?
97 divisions 403 schools Including divisions with focus schools not
accredited with warning or other schools accredited with warning
Cost = $790,000
Related Web Links: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/school_improvement/academic_reviews/index.shtml
What “dipstick” was used to gauge that the collection was sufficient enough to draw conclusions throughout the state?
Unfortunately, we did not keep track of how many documents were reviewed or how many of each type of documents were collected.
We usually finish academic reviews in two to three days, these took at least a week and in some divisions two weeks.
We usually finish academic reviews by December, we didn’t finish until March.
Generally, the cost is about $580,000.
What were the overall findings?
Teachers were teaching.
Students were learning. Unit tests sampled
were frequently not aligned to the new standards.
What does this mean?
What were the overall findings?
There were plenty of summative assessments – benchmark tests.
Lessons lacked true classroom day to day formative assessment.
What does this mean?
What were the overall findings?
There was evidence that principals spent time in classrooms completing observations.
There was limited evidence on the observation forms reviewed that feedback from principals provided to teachers would clearly enable the teachers’ understanding of how to change practice.
What does this mean?
What were the overall findings?
Professional development was provided.
Monitoring of new professional development skills was not evident.
What does this mean?
What were the overall findings?
Lesson plans were reviewed by the principal.
When the team reviewed the lesson plans, there was little alignment to the new standards.
What does this mean?
This is the $1,000,000 question--------
How do we impact the planning and delivery of instruction so that what teachers teach and students learn is aligned to the new standards?
Focus on the first five teaching standards.
Align school improvement activities to teacher evaluation.
1. Professional Knowledge
2. Instructional Planning
3. Instructional Delivery
4. Assessment of and for Student Learning
5. Learning Environment
Strategies & Average Effect Sizes on Achievement*
StrategiesPercentile
Gain
Identifying similarities and differences 45
Summarizing and note taking 34
Reinforcing effort and providing recognition 29
Homework and practice 28
Nonlinguistic representations 27
Cooperative learning 27
Setting objectives and providing feedback 23
Generating and testing hypothesis 23
Questions, cues, and advance organizers 22
Building vocabulary 20
Interactive games 20
Student discussion/chunking 17
*Haystead , M. W. & Marzano, R. J. (2009). Meta-Analytic Synthesis of Studies Conducted at Marzano Research Laboratory on Instructional Strategies
*Hattie, J (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement.
Strategies & Average Percentile Gain on Achievement*
Strategies Percentile Gain
Feedback to Students 37
Instructional Quality 34
Instructional Quantity 30
Direct Instruction 29
Graded homework 29
Acceleration 27
Remediation/feedback 24
Personalized instruction 21
Challenge of goals 20
Peer Tutoring 19
Mastery Learning 19
Questioning 16
Advance Organizers 14
Simulation and games 13
Computer-assisted instruction 12
Instructional media 12
The Power of Formative Assessment
“…the most powerful single influence enhancing achievement is feedback.”• Feedback from teachers to students (e.g.,
specific feedback on strengths and areas for improvement)
• Feedback from students to teachers (e.g., what they know and do not know, effectiveness of strategies)
*Hattie, J (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement.
Basic Component: Assessment (Lesson Observation)
Why is Lesson Observation by the Principal Important?
“…[T]he purpose of supervision should be the enhancement of teachers’ pedagogical skills, with the ultimate goal of enhancing student achievement.”
Teacher evaluation is not an end in
itself, but a means to an end —
TEACHER IMPROVEMENT.
Davis, D. R., Ellett, C. D., & Annunziata, J. (2002). Teacher evaluation, leadership and learning organizations. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 16(4), 287-301. p. 288.
Why Evaluation Only Is Not Enough
Making Permanent Changes: The Importance of Leadership
Explicit Training and Expectations on Needed
Skills
Explicit, Sustained
Emphasis and Monitoring of New
Skills
Change in Practice
This This Same Results as Last
Year
W/O
Focus of Evidence
STANDARDS & INDICATORS
Teacher Practice
Student Learning
(Evidence is the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.)
Main Areas for Evidence Collection during Observations
Standard 1: Professional Knowledge
Standard 3: Instructional
Delivery
Standard 4: Assessment of
and for Learning
Standard 5: Learning
Environment
Strong Evidence
Documenting Evidence Tips
• Avoid terms that express judgment (“neat classroom,” “fun activity,” “caring attitude”)
• Avoid words that imply, but do not specify, quantity (“most,” “few,” “several”)
• Stick to the five senses• Remember Who, What, When, Where,
How
How can this evidence for Instructional Delivery be improved?
3.3 Differentiates instruction to meet students’ needs.
Spent the majority of the time on whole class instruction for math though several of the students demonstrated proficiency on the long division process in the first few minutes of class.
How can this evidence for Learning Environment be improved?
5.1 Arranges the classroom to maximize learning while providing a safe environment.
Classroom neatly arranged so students can work in small groups.
School Leadership Basic Components Evaluation Tool
Division/School Professional Development Evaluation Tool
Student Behavior vs Teacher Behavior
Spend more time providing evidence of what kids are doing and what kids are learning and less time explaining what the teacher is doing
Periodically Collect Evidence of How and Why a Lesson was Planned
Where is the alignment to the most rigorous part of the standard?
What teaching strategies did you select and why?
Why these resources? How will you know if a
student mastered the objective?
Standard 1
Standard 2: Planning the Lesson
Standard 3
Standard 4
Standard 5
Barriers to Improvement
The biggest barriers
to improvement are not using the right words to influence change; not evaluating often enough; and, not collecting strong, reliable, and explicit evidence.
What happens if I tell you that you work hard? Would it cause you to provide feedback to students more often?
What if you only provide me with feedback three times during the year? Would I begin using high-yield teaching strategies?
What if you check my lesson plans as “being in on time each week?” Would my lesson plans target more rigorous content?
What if you tell me I did a great job of explicitly modeling how to solve a problem, but the students failed the SOL assessment questions with similar problems?
What will happen if the barriers aren’t overcome?
Questions
Dr. Kathleen M. Smith, Retired August 1
Office of School Improvement
(804)225 -2865