Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/81027
CTA member Laura Williams talks with Oscar Sanchez in Riverside. WE LEAD THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE By Eric C. Heins, CTA Vice President TEACHER EVALUATION: Being proactive: Taking the lead on teacher evaluation NO ONE KNOWS BETTER what good teaching is than a teacher. CTA's Teacher Evaluation Framework is the first step for us, as profes- sionals, to take back our profession. The framework refocuses evaluation on what it should be — improving our instructional practice, thereby improving student achievement. That's what it's all about. I'm a music teacher. When my principal evaluated me, there were only three criteria she was looking for: Are the kids engaged? (Yes, they were, because they were singing.) Are they all happy? Did I send anyone to the office as a discipline problem? If those were taken care of, I was an excellent, effective teacher. I could have been singing with them all day long and that would have been fine with her, because she had no musical background. That didn't help me as a teacher. What I wanted her to do was Most agree that the current teacher evaluation system in California is not focused on student achievement. A new Assembly bill (AB 5) seeks to create a teacher evaluation system based on best practices, one that uses multiple measures to define teacher effectiveness — moving us beyond the approach of just using test scores to define educational success. This new system is rigorous, but it's fair and focuses on improved teaching and learning. It also provides guidelines for local school districts to meet when bargaining their new evaluation tools. CTA supported AB 5 because it is based on CTA's Teacher Evalua- tion Principles and CTA's Teacher Evaluation Framework, two docu- ments developed by members and approved by State Council). Read more: www.cta.org/evaluationframework. At press time, CTA is working with legislators on amendments and is expecting a vote soon. See details online. to help me become a better music teacher. CTA's evaluation frame- work lays out a way for that to happen. Here's how. First, it separates out the summative, high-stakes decision- tive and summative sides. Too often it's the music teachers and special education teachers, the counselors and the librarians, who instruction. I can invite colleagues into my room to observe me. I can meet with them regularly and share things like, "This lesson didn't work very well, how do you suggest I do it differently? What are my strengths?" I can have those kinds of discussions with people who know what I'm talking about — who know about my subject area, my expertise. Our current evaluation system doesn't separate out the forma- making around our job, meaning the "Will I get permanent status? What does the boss think?" type of decisions. Then we focus on the formative side of evaluation: improving are left out of meaningful evaluations. So whatever you're doing professionally as an educator, this allows you to set up a frame- work to get better at what you do. Leading the way locally Formative evaluation is about growing in the profession with like professionals. Research on CTA's Quality Education Invest- ment Act program (QEIA) shows how important collaboration is when it comes to improving instruction and improving stu- dent achievement. Now, what works in the Central Valley may not work in the Bay Area. So the details of what this looks like must be locally September 2012 www.cta.org 23