Effective Teacher and Teacher Evaluation

I am a member of the MEA Instruction and Professional Development Committee. I have greatly enjoyed my time on the committee and being a part of this committee often keeps me on top of the latest news in education. Here are a few "did you knows..." I learned at my last meeting this past Saturday in Augusta.

Did you know that there is a teacher incentive fund rolling into the state? This fund will be distributed to 5-10 districts to create an alternative pay schedule (i.e. performance pay). Eeeks!

Did you know there is a teacher evaluation bill that will remove the firewall currently written in state law that prohibits the tying of teacher performance to student test scores. This is because of Race to the Top. Have you heard about that? Apparently to receive funds for this (not so bright) program, you have to be able to tie teacher performance to student tests scores. Maine is trying to get funds through this national program. Eeeks!

Did you know that the Common Core Standards are nearing their final stages and will be released to the public for public comment soon (only the language arts and math). Maine has signed on. What does this mean for curriculum? The Common Core Standards are standards, but don't standards drive curriculum? What does this mean?

Did you know that 10 persistently low performing schools in Maine will be receiving notification soon and that have 4 options to improve their schools. Do you want to know what those 4 options are:
1. Fire all of the staff
2. Fire 1/2 of the staff
3. Fire leadership with significant staff improvement plan
4. Transformative model - basically a charter school within the system

Lots to think about. The committee's major charge this year was to kind of preempt the removal of the law that prohibits tying teacher performance to student test scores by coming up with a definition of an effective teacher and a teacher evaluation system. After much hard work, here is what we came up with.

Teacher Effectiveness: That the MEA believes effective teachers enhance student achievement when they:
1. have high expectations for all students;
2. apply knowledge of the content taught and how to teach those subjects;
3. acknowledges participation in professional development;
4. encourage positive academic, attitudinal, and social outcomes for students;
5. use a variety of resources, including available technology, and appropriately selects from them to plan and structure engaging learning opportunities;
6. monitor and evaluate student progress, adapting instruction as needed through a variety of appropriate measures and multiple sources of evidence;
7. create a learning environment that recognizes and supports individual differences; and
8. collaborate with teachers, administrators, other professionals, students, parents and guardians.

Teacher Evaluation: that the MEA believes a comprehensive teacher evaluation system involves teachers and stakeholders in developing one that:
1. focuses on teacher growth and effectiveness;
2. uses a combination of measures to evaluate multiple dimensions of teaching;
3. acknowledges participation in professional development;
4. recognizes use of best practices in pedagogy and content as stated in current literature;
5. recognizes collaboration with teachers, administrators, other professionals, students, parents and guardians;
Furthermore, the system must use current best practices for evaluation that
6. involve multiple observations by trained professionals during the school calendar year resulting in formative feedback;
7. require a minimum of two appropriately trained evaluators to ensure support, fairness, and equity;
8. identifies trained, mutually agreed upon mentors and other targeted resources for teachers to improve their instruction;
9. distinguish among teachers by grade level and content area; and
Finally, and evaluation system MUST NOT be based solely on teacher performance, value added measures or any single measure of student achievement.

Thoughts?