Teacher Evaluations-Something evil this way comes

Everybody knows that the American educational system has problems. In fact, everybody thinks there is a simple solution although no one agrees on what that might be- more money, better training for teachers, less students in the classroom, mainstreaming/inclusion of special needs kids, leaving the arts in schools, taking the arts out of school so there is more time for the basics, and on and on. Of course, there is the camp that believes wholeheartedly in standards. If we have standards that every teacher must teach then there will be consistency and therefore we will produce a better product. If you ask teachers they will usually lean towards the need for fewer dysfunctional families, or parents that are more involved or kids without cellphones. Of course, there is the crowd that have gieven up trying to regulate cell phones and want to welcome them into the classroom with open arms. The old "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy so the theory is that if we utilize the phones to some good  purpose like on the spot research or online quizzes with Socrative that the phones will become less of an attractive nuisance or method of rebellion for teens. The truth, of course, is messy. It is not a one-fix problem and not every school is going to find the magic key that fixes everything. Although there are many strategies that will have positive impacts in many schools, in others they may fall flat or even have some detrimental effects. Just like students, effective approaches to educating America's youth will need to be tailor-fit to the school, teacher and student.

Some of the factors that I feel have had the worst results in the students I have taught over the years are societal ills such as divorce, workaholic parents, less community involvement in raising "our" children and the effects of a society wallowing in an absurd obsession with violence, sex and "reality" that includes staging human conflict for entertainment ("Survivor"," Big Brother", "The Bachelor" "Dance Moms" or "Toddlers and Tiaras" just to name a few). Parent conferences have all the preparation angst of a state dinner. Where can we place the two bilogical, divorced parents so they are supportively near their child but not too close to the new spouse? I 've had to arrange two conferences just to keep warring parents apart and believe me, by the end of them I'm wondering how the student is holding up in school at all with all the battling going on over their head!

Now, I realize that there are plenty of lousy teachers out there and a great many of them should have been eliminated long before they had a chance to screw up a generation of students. I can appreciate that teacher evaluation is probably at the top of most people's short list for school/education improvement. It's a bit more complicated than most people think. All doctors get M.D. licenses but all doctors are not equal. One less than accomplished, but certified, doctor almost killed my mom two years ago. I know, I know, a bad teacher isn't going to kill a student (well, probably not) but they can do some pretty serious emotional damage, not to mention throwing a wrench in the child's progress along the educational trail.  Which brings me to the point...good teachers have a certain "X" factor, an instinctive nose for what their students need in order to be engaged and on task. It's hard to teach that in colleges and impossible to demand by administrative directive. You can look at standardized test scores, but those results are not solely the result (or responsibility) of a single teacher. You could look at grades but, of course, I control the grades that my students earn so that's not a measure of my ability. The best they have come up with is the administrative observation. So a teacher's effectiveness is based on a subjective observation for a couple of short periods each year. Not surprisingly, the new observation tool calls for documentation that the teacher provides to meet.....wait for it....the STANDARDS for being a good teacher. Now, I certainly think it is reasonable to ask a teacher to show that they are making plans for their students learning in advance rather than winging it. And it is reasonable to ask a teacher to show or explain how they make accomodations for the individual characters in their classes, however, the new evaluation model introduced this year is designed so that many really good teachers can't possibly achieve the incredibly detailed requirements (especially in a the short observation period) and even a relatively unimaginative teacher who happens to be a detail person could create lesson plans that are jam-packed with educational jargon and elaborate details catering to every unique individual in their classes. Is that who you want teaching your kids? "Go away, kid, I'm busy with these lesson plans! GRRR".  I had a meeting today with two younger male teachers who are freaking out trying to do the impossible. They are trying to create lesson plans that are designed for every aspect of teaching and every type of student. One of them handed me a three ring binder packed with about 30 pages of plans, justifications, differentiation, worksheets and assessments. It was a 1 1/2  inch binder. The plans inside covered four days! FOUR days of teaching plans!  It had taken him 11 hours to prepare. So, during those 11 hours did he get anything graded? copied? parent e-mails answered? play with his own small children?  This is a man who is scared to death that he will lose his job if he doesn't have these minutely detailed plans on his desk. This is a talented teacher who is exceptionally talented with technology in the classroom. I told them both that they would never be able to keep up this level of detail in a lesson plan. They will kill themselves trying to do the impossible. I myself earned two Needs Improvement ratings under this new system because I still scribble my plan in an old-fashioned green grade book. I know what I have to cover, I know my students and I know what works with them and what doesn't. I make adjustments every year for things that didn't work the way I wanted them to and for new ideas that I come across during the year. Does that really make me not Proficient ?
        It would be nice if we could bottle that indescrible, non-transferable, skill of the really good teachers but we can't. You can pair them with novice teachers who may pick up some good techniques or plans but the reality is, a good teacher has intrinsic qualities that make them a good teacher. More money will not make them better teachers, nor will more demands for them to write down every plan they make.