Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/34960
— despite her contract requiring one every two years. “I haven’t been given feedback, guidance CTA adopts principles to improve teacher evaluation Y vonne Tran wants constructive criti- cism on her teaching, but hasn’t had a thorough evaluation in four years or mentoring,” Tran says. “It’s easy to point the finger at teachers, but it’s difficult to be- come a better teacher if there isn’t follow- through by administrators.” Tran is part of CTA’s Teacher Evaluation Workgroup, a 40-member committee of classroom teachers and staff who spent the past year researching best practices to create a leading-edge evaluation system that will raise the quality of teaching in California. The workgroup drew up a set of “Teach- er Development and Evaluation Principles” that were adopted by CTA’s State Council of Education at its June meeting. The four- page document succinctly and eloquently lays forth the principles on which future guidelines for teacher evaluation will be generated. (See the guiding principles on the next page.) The introduction to the principles states that teachers “want a system that provides meaningful feedback, improves their prac- tice, allows them to grow in the profession and ultimately enhances student learning. For this reason, it is important that the Cal- ifornia Teachers Association be at the fore- front of current teacher evaluation reforms. We have the opportunity to lead discussions and build a better system to serve teachers, students and the community.” With evaluation becoming even more of a hot-button education reform issue, the re- sponse by teachers couldn’t be timelier. Ex- ternal pressure has been increasing to use high-stakes testing as a primary tool in evaluation and to remove “underperform- ing” teachers from the classroom. But teachers maintain that using test scores for that purpose is a simplistic, flawed and meaningless tool that has little to do with evaluating teacher effectiveness and only serves to narrow the curriculum and to cre- ate an unhealthy school environment. Teachers acknowledge that developing a 24 California Educator | JUNE 2011 fair and thorough evalua- tion system isn’t easy. It re- quires time on the part of administrators and re- sources to provide profes- sional development to teachers. Yet having 50 per- cent of teachers leave the profession during their first five years as they do now is also a major waste of time and expense. “A lot of teachers are just sinking because they are left on their own and are not supported,” says Jesse Aguilar, an art teacher at East Bakersfield High School and a member of the Kern High School Teachers Association. “When you are a new teacher, there’s going to be a lot you don’t know. A good evaluation system will help teachers become better at each stage as they grow in their profession.” Since California has so many different and individu- al school districts, CTA maintains, it is imperative that any evaluation system be collectively bargained at the local level to ensure that local conditions are considered. There are all sorts of mea- sures that can be used in teacher evaluation, including student portfolios that show evidence of growth, learning goals developed by the teach- er or principal, continued professional development, subject matter as- sessments, and formative and summative stu- dent assessments. Once these measures are determined at a local level, evaluations should help a per- son become a better teacher. If a teacher re- ally is lacking, a comprehensive and fair evaluation can also be used to guide them out of the profession. With the adoption of the Teacher Develop- ment and Evaluation Principles, the next task of the workgroup will be to move forward and develop an evaluation framework to assist lo- cal chapters in shaping and bargaining a more supportive and equitable evaluation system. DINA MARTIN