How we assess our teachers?
As someone who is planning on entering the teaching field someday I often think about how I will be assessed throughout my career. I think about all the many factors that will play into how my principal and others grade my performance. But most often I think about student based performance assessments. I think about how I could have a group of low performing children that could potentially have a lasting impact of my career if my job security depended on their success. I don’t think it is entirely fair to base so much of a teachers performance off of their students success and therefore student based performance assessments should no longer be used for teachers.
I want to start of with an excerpt from Hochschild and Roth (2003) in which they are referencing reccomendations from the National Academy of Sciences. They write “All students should participate in large-scale assessment, in part so that school systems can be held accountable for their educational progress.” Now I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal but I think it it. I think it is a big deal because more often that not these tests seem to be used not as an indicator of how the district is performing but instead they are used as a measure of how the teacher is performing. I wanted to get opinions from actual teachers to see if their opinions matched mine so I asked two teachers from the Oconee County School District what their opinions of student based performance assessments were. The first teacher I talked to was Danielle Gay. Danielle teaches second grade and has just finished her second year teaching. When asked what her opinions on the subject were this was her response. “Student based performance assessment for teacher assessment is an unfair way to judge teacher achievement and effort. With each and every child comes a different brain, different experiences, different home lives, and different patterns of growth. To assess a teacher on a student’s performance (good or bad) brings a multitude of incorrect assumptions about the teacher. A teacher has no control over a plethora of circumstances that can negatively or positively affect a student and their test score. These circumstances range from but are not limited to: parent involvement, finical stability, adequate food supply, adequate sleep, safety of home, and many other factors.” I think Danielle really hits the heart of this issue in her response. Student based performance assessments are not an accurate way to assess teachers because there are a million other things going on in these kids lives that can contribute to them peeforming poorly on standardized tests. Teaching does not occur in a vacuum and many external factors have an impact on students.
The second teacher I talked to was Lauren Boissonneault who has taught 4K for a number of years. When asked her take on this issue this was her response. “I disagree with basing a teacher’s performance on student based performance assessments because there are many more factors which effect student performance such as mental/physical health of a child at time of test, whether the test in given in the best possible mode for child to respond (written, auditory, etc.) Time factors like early morning, before lunch after eating, what happened at home before assessment or on bus on way to school. Does child need quiet/noise/movement to concentrate, was room to hot/cold, what was the weather. There are too many external and internal factors that can effect any one assessment period to base a teacher’s performance solely on that.” Lauren’s response seems to echo that of Danielle’s that there are way too many factors in play to use these test as an assessment of the teacher.
It just isn’t fair that so many teachers are being assessed this way and potentially losing their jobs even though they might actually be a very good teacher. Students results on standardized test can vary greatly even over a very short period of time and cannot accurately assess teacher performance. Maybe over time we will find a better more accurate way to assess our teachers but until then we need to at least stop assessing them this way. It just isn’t fair.
Boissonneault, Lauren. “Lauren Interview.” Personal interview. 10 June 2016.
Gay, Danielle. “Danielle Interview.” Personal interview. 10 June 2016.
Hochschild, J. L., & Scovronick, N. B. (2003). The American Dream and the Public Schools. New York: Oxford University Press.
