Job or Profession Specific Information : Teacher Evaluations

By na - The ads and popups are a disgrace for a professional site, but the article is decent. Excerpt: Evaluating teachers is one of the most difficult jobs in any school district. The Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools handle teacher evaluation by incorporating it into an in-depth, wide-ranging approach to teacher learning called the Professional Growth System. Education World takes a close look at the system's practical elements and how it works. (Added: 18-Oct-2011 Hits: 63 )

By SHARON OTTERMAN - This is big, since traditionally teachers unions have fought loudly against looking at student achievement when evaluating teachers. Excerpt: Catching up to the reality already faced by many of its members, the nation’s largest teachers’ union on Monday affirmed for the first time that evidence of student learning must be considered in the evaluations of school teachers around the country. (Added: 18-Oct-2011 Hits: 30 )

By Michael Huemer - Informal student evaluations of faculty were started in the 1960's by enterprising college students.(1) Since then, their use has spread so that now they are administered in almost all American colleges and universities and are probably the main source of information used for evaluating faculty teaching performance.(2) There is an enormous literature on the subject of student evaluations of faculty (SEF).(3) The following is a summary of some developments in that literature that should be of special interest to faculty, with particular emphasis on criticisms of SEF that have emerged recently. But I begin with the arguments in favor of the use of SEF. (Added: 18-Oct-2011 Hits: 52 )

By STEPHANIE BANCHERO And DAVID KESMODEL - Teacher evaluations for years were based on brief classroom observations by the principal. But now, prodded by President Barack Obama's $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, at least 26 states have agreed to judge teachers based, in part, on results from their students' performance on standardized tests. So with millions of teachers back in the classroom, many are finding their careers increasingly hinge on obscure formulas like the one that fills a whiteboard in an economist's office here. (Teacher evaluation via looking at student achievement is a hugely controversial subject, and for good reason.) (Added: 18-Oct-2011 Hits: 15 )

By na - Yikes. New York City education officials are planning to develop up to 16 new standardized tests for 3rd through 12th grades. Unlike other exams, these will be used to grade the teachers, not the students. Under a state law passed last year that helped New York win $700 million in a federal "Race to the Top" grant competition, school districts must evaluate teachers on a scale from “ineffective” to “highly effective,” with potential firing for those rated ineffective for two years in a row. The city expects to spend about $25 million creating the new tests, which would be in addition to the standardized tests students already take. What have we learned about tests as accountability tools for teacher performance? Why do school systems believe that tests are the answer to reforming education? (Added: 19-Oct-2011 Hits: 15 )