August 2016

Start Your Evaluation Year the Right Way

The beginning of a new school year brings with it much excitement and anticipation for all that will be accomplished.  Although teacher and leader evaluations play a minor role in the functionality of school, the beginning of a new school year is a great time to assess your evaluation process and strive to make the work you put into it result in a better education for students.  As a self-assessment of your process, consider the following questions:

Does your process for setting up classroom observations work well for your faculty?

• In some schools, evaluators give notice regarding upcoming observations while in other schools the entire process is a surprise.  While one method isn’t superior to the other, it is important to receive feedback from your faculty to ensure that the evaluation process isn’t viewed as a “gotcha” system.

Are you using walk-through observations?

• While they aren’t mandatory, regular classroom walk-throughs can help an evaluator with gaining a clearer picture of how a learning environment functions on a regular basis.  Walk-throughs, coupled with formal observations, can help ensure a more thorough evaluation experience for everyone.

What role do artifacts play in your evaluation process?

• Artifacts are not required in the evaluation progression, but they can still play an important role in helping participants highlight the work that takes place at the school.  Offering suggestions of worthwhile artifacts can save time and energy as well as reduce stress.

Is your written feedback constructive?

• Whether a participant is struggling or excelling, the type of written feedback provided on an observation or evaluation can make all the difference.  Rather than copying directly from the rubric, an evaluator should strive to offer specific feedback that is constructive and valuable to the participant.

How worthwhile are your post-conferences?

• Arguably, the most important part of the evaluation process is the post-conference meeting.  This is the opportunity to spend one-on-one time focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of an educator.  This meeting should be timely, but not rushed.  The goal is to share information which will lead to a better learning environment at each school.

As we continue to move toward a performance-driven evaluation system, it is important for each evaluator to assess his/her process and ensure that TLE has value to all those it affects.  

What is the Growth Goal?

When it comes to the newest legislative updates for TLE, the majority of changes involve some tweaks to our current practices.  One significant change is the individualized program of professional development, also known as the growth goal.  The purpose of this component is to specifically integrate meaningful professional development into the TLE.  Through collaboration between the evaluator and the teacher or administrator (whichever is being evaluated), a well-defined professional growth goal will be developed.  While the focus of that goal should address a specific area in the qualitative component of TLE, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the weakest area.  Teachers or administrators should choose areas that will be of interest and lead to greater student achievement.  This shouldn’t be a “fend for yourself” model, meaning resources should be made available to help grow educators through this process. 

The growth goal component will begin its pilot phase during the 2017-18 school year.  Although specific guidelines have not been fully developed, there will be a need to monitor compliance with each program.  This does not necessarily mean that a rating system will be attached to the individualized programs of professional development.  This also does not require additional hours of PD to be added in order to complete the process.  The idea is to take the required number of professional development points, as specified in your district’s policy, and focus them on skills that improve instruction and grow educators.

EngageOK Presentation

The TLE Office would like to thank everyone who joined us for our EngageOK session “TLE Update: Moving from Compliance-Driven to Performance-Driven."  Participants at all six EngageOK locations offered meaningful suggestions, thoughtful questions, and positive affirmations regarding the changes coming our way for the evaluation process in Oklahoma.  If you didn’t have a chance to make it to the TLE session, you can still access the information for this and all EngageOK presentations by visiting http://engage.ok.gov/live/

We Want to Hear from You

The Office of Educator Effectiveness is actively soliciting feedback to improve the evaluation system.  The State Department of Education serves all educators and values ideas and suggestions geared toward improving learning and strengthening teachers.  Any questions/suggestions regarding teacher evaluation or requests to schedule a training, should contact the TLE office.