Is Your District’s Teacher Evaluation System Stopping You From Being An Effective Instructional Leader?

In my experience, both teachers and administrators believe that the teacher evaluation system in their district is not ideal. As a teacher, the evaluation process varied from being told what my goals and objectives would be for the year to writing my own annual goals and objectives that are never revisited throughout the school year, except me when I am asked to reflect on what I did to achieve my goals. 

I taught at a school where classroom observations were typically very few and far between and usually did not follow-up with ANY meaningful feedback. I have also taught at a school where an administrator was in my classrooms daily. Which sounds ideal, but was not. If there were follow-up conversations that were supportive and encouraged reflection on my practice, I believe I would have had a much more positive perception of the process. Instead, at one particular school, the feedback was typically written (notes for informal visits and full reports for formal observations and focused on how many students’ books were not covered, how many were wearing a hat (we had just transitioned to a no hat policy), and why my lesson content did not mirror what the lead teacher in the course was covering that day.  It was demoralizing to receive feedback that had no relationship to my instruction and how students were responding. Other colleagues were of similar mind and basically viewed the evaluation process as a “dog and pony show” and not about supporting improved instructional practice.

Obviously, the wide range of experiences I had as a classroom teacher depended on the skill of the evaluator. Having said that, the influence of the district’s evaluation system cannot be overlooked. As an administrator, I was much more tuned in to specific contract language for teacher evaluation practices and how it influenced the overall perception of the district’s evaluation process. 

What I eventually realized was that I had the opportunity to influence teacher practice by facilitating more discussion both formally and informally in a targeted area of instruction. Asking reflective questions helped the teacher arrive at their own truth, so to speak. It also made planning for next steps much easier. These actions help to build a more learning-focused culture as we were actually talking about more about instruction practice. 

Unfortunately, some teachers still wanted to talk about nuts and bolts almost exclusively (classroom not vacuumed, out of copy paper, laminator not working, student/parent behavior, not enough FILL IN THE BLANK). These matters needed to be addressed, but so did instructional practice. I found that if I did not consciously plan and make time for learning-focused conversations, they would not occur.

It’s not easy because you are being pulled in so many directions. Being able to find some high-leverage practices to improve your instructional leadership influence would really help, right? Look no further than to the bottom of this page. You will find a teacher evaluation quiz that will help you to find out more about these strategies. I encourage you to check it out and let me know what else would be helpful.