The Administrative View: Teacher Evaluations

As much as I pretend to be all ed tech ... my day job actually falls in the Principal's Office.  Under my list of Faculty Development duties lies the bullet point heading of....

(insert ominous, creepy musical underscore)

Googling "evaluating teachers" got me 51,400,000 results from such sides as the difficulty and complexity of teacher evaluation, the benefits and challenges of "value-added" logarithms and even who should be doing the evaluating.  Like it or not, evaluating is challenging.  

So how do we go about the process here at Brebeuf Jesuit?  We work through a blended approach of formal, one hour, planned observations; one-on-one planning and goal setting meetings; informal walk-throughs; collected materials such as lesson plans, rubrics, sample assessments... and yes, we may even look at the occasional common assessment data.  

The (Learning) Objective 
I usually start my conversations with faculty discussing the objective of the process.  My objective is not punishment.  My objective is not rooting out the weak to bring fire and termination.

My objective is professional growth and development.  As our mission statement reads, "Students at Brebeuf Jesuit are called to discover and cultivate the fullness of their God-given talents as a responsibility and as an act of workshop."  Well guess what?  My job as an evaluating administrator is to help teachers of Brebeuf Jesuit to discover and cultivate their God-given talents.  I do consider this an act of worship.

Framed in the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm, our evaluation program (called the Magis Program for Professional Growth) looks like this:

The Details

Definition of "Members of the Principal's Office": Principal, Assistant Principal, Director of Faculty Development.

For faculty in their first three years at Brebeuf, the goal-setting and follow-up will occur with the Principal’s Office (and in collaboration with the Department Chair) each year along with the annual evaluation.

Faculty beyond three years of experience at Brebeuf will be on a three-year cycle with the evaluation process, so goals would be discussed with the Principal’s Office only every three years. 

Informal walk-through observations occur for all faculty by members of the Principal’s Office (and in collaborations with the Department Chair) each year.  These informal walk-throughs are most unannounced (though can be planned ahead) and are 5-10 minutes based on the Carolyn Downey model.  Frequency of walk-throughs is generally:

• 1Year 1-2 Faculty – 6 visits per semester
• Year 3 Faculty and Faculty in Cycle – 3 visits per semester
• Faculty off-cycle – 1 visit per semester

Materials submitted as part of the reflection element are examples of lesson planning (daily lesson and unit plan), sample assessments, samples of student work and a self reflection writing.

The Difference

Most of this is not going to look too radical to most readers.  It's a lot of Downey, Marzano, Danielson and a little McTiegh... plus a whole lot of St. Ignatius.  What might be different to some is the emphasis on the relationship created.

The first step in relationship building is trust.  How do I build trust?  I'd say it's through listening (really listening), taking time to turn off the phone ringer/minimize computer screen, drop whatever I am doing to focus on the individual.  I strive to build conversational around teacher identified areas of growth and strengths.  The commitment to not tie monetary compensation to evaluation also builds trust ... as there is nothing like a heavy power imbalance (holding your family's financial success or failure in my subjective little hands) to at seriously hamper a trusting relationship.

The next step is. as the Prayer for Generosity reads, to be willing to give and not to count the costs.  This type of evaluation system takes time, energy and resources.  With walk-throughs, meetings, observations, writing reflections... a minimum 10 hours per teacher (times 16 for me this year that's 160 hours plus off cycle hours adding about 20 more).  It may mean hours of Googling teaching methods, resources and best practices for field's outside my comfort zone (I work with two fabulous Physics teachers this year... having never taken Physics this is a stretch year for me).  It means knowing all faculty well enough to pair up veteran teachers with newer teachers as mentors and role models.  It means occasionally getting up and modeling an activity or strategy myself.  It means being the bad guy sometimes - or brave enough to face uncomfortable conversations.  I

Finally, relationship requires mutual respect.  I work with amazing people.  There talents and dedication astound me.  I respect them as professional educators and individuals on a journey of growth.  I have no idea why they hang with me... but I am thankful they do.

If you are interested in learning more about our evaluation system or seeing some of our materials - send an email or note in the comments below.  As with our Ed Tech stuff, we share.  Be warned - there is no iPad app or automated spreadsheet for this type of work.  Only yourself and the desire to cultivate the fullness of individual talents.

Paved With Good Intentions

In October, I was sitting in at the Indiana Non-Public Education Association conference in the Indianapolis Convention Center, enjoying new professional friendships with a couple of Lutheran administrators… trying to hold back judgment on the presentation “Common Core Standards and Assessments” by a young man from the Indiana Department of Education.  Admittedly, we were potentially a hostile audience – private school administrators who as a breed tend to lean toward distrustful when presented with legislated educational policies.   However, we were mostly faith-based administrators who whole heartily try, as St. Ignatius would challenge us, to presume good will. 

The good will lasted until slide #4 (the presentation can be found on the IDOE Resources for Implementing Indiana’s Common Core Standards page).  At Slides 5 we leave the hallowed halls of the Common Core and move to the more important issue… the test with which we will MEASURE the success or failure, not of the Standards, but of the children and teachers of Indiana schools.  For us this means the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). 

Let us leave my narrative for a moment…

I’m a primary source kind of gal… And my coursework at Indiana University’s School of Library and Information Science (and ensuing Masters in Library Science) makes me a killer on the Google…. I decided to read, for myself, the originating document posted on the Common Core State Standards Initiative website.  Looking over the Introduction (June 2, 2010) and Key Considerations  for the English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects document the good intentions of the document are evident.

Good Intention #1: A Living Work

“The Standards are intended to be a living work: as new and better evidence emerges, the Standards will be revised accordingly”

You may have read the Washington Post “The Answer Sheet” post this week on America’s Next Education ‘Crisis’ – and Who Benefits.   Valerie Strauss looks at who really benefits from the public discourse in education these days and lands firmly with the for-profit businesses selling curriculum, textbooks, consulting and data warehousing software.  The pavement cracks under the cash load… how can a document be “living” when an entire industry is evolving on a static document?  The textbooks, supplemental websites, curriculum pacing guides, webinars… are all being designed around the Standards created and taken off life support.  Let’s not kid ourselves; the Common Core is not a living document.  It died the day the money fell from the luminous Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) data enhanced sky. 

Good Intention #2: A Focus on Results Rather than Means

 “Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identity as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the Standards”

Remember teachers?  Heck, remember professional judgment?  I for one spent years in an undergraduate program to study not only my content area, but also educational philosophy, pedagogy and methods before entering the classroom in 1992.  Contrary to what some would have you believe, the majority of teachers I have worked with over the past 20 years have cared deeply about students… spending long hours planning activities to meet learning objectives, personalizing experiences for individual students and listening to countless stories of “look what I found on the way to school today…”. 

The Goal #3 of the PARCC framework in Indiana looks simple enough.  The test will support these amazing educators in four ways:

Let me give you all a little hint, when one posts a presentation online, one might want to make sure the speaker notes are not visible.  

The speaker notes for this slide let us know that what is meant by “Instructional Tools to Support Implementation” is to provide “content frameworks, sample assessment tasks and model instructional units”.  A pothole in the road…  a fully canned curriculum that anyone could dish out to young people – no need for teachers or their professional judgment and experience.  “Professional Development Models” include PD on implementation of the new assessment and interpreting test data.  “Timely Student Achievement Data” means aligned performance – based assessments throughout the year (DUCK – lost a tire on that one)… And that “Educator-Led Training to Support ‘Peer-to-Peer’ Training”… that’s to train K-12 educators to use the instructional tools handed down by the PARCC folks, i.e. the canned curriculum mentioned earlier.  (Whew – I think I broke an axel)

Back to our presentation…. At this point, the young presenter from the IDOE on that October morn looked earnestly at the now hostile audience and said we shouldn’t worry about what to teach … we should “trust the Standards” (his words) and let them be our guide.

And with one simple phrase the faiths of the world came together in a common question-  how is this good for our children?

The Actual Pavement

Here’s the thing – the Common Core Standards are not bad.  As a jumping off point for the living discussion of best educational practices I’m really okay with them.  The Standards own authors were acting in good faith … but they never saw the jackhammer of market forces coming to bear on education.  This document will become a rally point for those looking to make a profit.  In the 45 states and 3 territories which have adopted the Common Core, the conversation is not about educational standards… it’s about textbooks, testing and budgetary concerns for hiring all those consultants. This isn't about educating children.  This isn't about developing better teachers.  This isn't about improving and innovating schools.  This is about making money in for profit companies…. hiding behind good intentions paving the way …

Final Exams in a 1:1 BYOT Environment

December 2012 will be our first round of 1:1 BYOT Final Exams.  In my spare time (all five minutes of it in airports), I’ve been reading up on assessments in 1:1 environments.  At the JSEA Tech Directors Conference, I had a couple of conversations on assessments when students have personal devices.  Since I have spent so much time in the real world lately (and not in the blogosphere) I thought today was a good time to  summarizing ideas from print and interpersonal conversation... So I offer these guidelines for consideration during this most wonderful season of final exams!  

Creating the Exam

1. Consider your objective(s) and work backward.  In other words, don’t start with the noun (device)—start with the verbs (analyze, create, compare/contrast, develop, argue).

2. Open ended questions (strong on application and/or synthesis) are harder to cheat.

3. Do not overburden exam proctors with complicated instructions or expectations (i.e. if you don’t want students on Google during the exam...recognize the student/adult ratio in the room and the fact there is most likely no screen monitoring software).

4. Printing may be an issue in a 1:1 environment.  Plan ahead and...

5. Consider other ways of turning in assignment (email, Dropbox, shared Google Doc). 

Preparing Students

1. Be clear in your expectations.  This includes but is not limited to:

· How work should be submitted to teacher

· Format and style requirements of submitted work

· Parameters for use of device during exam—can web searches be done during exam?  Just word processing? Can notes or prior documents be opened and referenced?

2. Make sure students are familiar with the format/tool of the exam. A final exam (or other high stakes assessment) may not the best time to try a brand new tool. 

3. Clear notification to students and parents of ramifications for cheating, plagiarism or other unethical behaviors. 

Monitoring Exams

1. Understand that devices may be in use during exams.

2. Read directions from academic teacher carefully. 

3. Remind students of parameters for device usage (see above).  Hold students accountable.

** Other ideas, suggestions or  general brilliance are welcome in the comments section!

Spending Time in the Real World

Ever notice how we seldom complain we are spending too much time in the real world?  There is money to be made clocking, complaining, berating for time spent in the virtual world... but not so much in the face-to-face.  It's conference season in our world... @jdferries and I are stretching our introverted personalities to the extreme.  I thought I'd share some of our real world work - so those of you in our virtual circles don't feel neglected.  That said, we've made tons of new, real world friends!  (Singing that old Girl Scout ditty "Make new friends, but keep the olllddd...one is silver and the other gold)

Indiana Computer Educators Conference

http://www.slideshare.net/lamastej/ice-2012-its-about-what-you-do

A look at how we changed Professional Development from noun focused to verb focused.

JD has the other presentation posted on his side... check out Designing Toward Digital Citizenship: Rethinking Computer Curriculum over at Confessions of a School CIO.

Indiana Non-Public Education Conference (Educators)

http://www.slideshare.net/lamastej/what-byot-looks-like-for-inpea

A photo essay on What BYOT Looks Like at Brebeuf... played before presentation.

http://www.slideshare.net/lamastej/updated-byot-why-we-took-the-plunge-for-inpea

A revitalized classic presentation - looks at our discernment process leading to our 1:1 BYOT learning environment.

What the future brings...

• Today (October 20, 2012 for those of you time shifting) we are off to ISTE's Leadership Summit here in Indianapolis.  Purely observers for this one!
• Next week I head to an undisclosed location in the midwest to be part of an ISACS accreditation team (Woot!  That is one lucky independent school...)
• November 13-18 we'll be at the JSEA Tech Directors Conference in New Orleans - our first keynote... it's going to be EPIC!  I think we'll make a Jen & JD Show episode of it.

And then we collapse into an introvert coma... once revived the blogs will once again flow.  Unless somewhere in the real world I get bored, annoyed or delayed at an airport.  Cheers!

Check Boxes, Real Time Reporting and the Lost Art of Teaching

A while back I wrote about Kenneth Burke’s concept of trained incapacity.  Funny story… my husband went on a cleaning kick a couple of weekends ago and surfaced from the dust with Daniel Goleman’s Working With Emotional Intelligence (flash back to the late ‘90s when business was influenced by education … 1998, the golden year).  On page 44 of this classic is once again the idea of “Trained Incapacity”… but with a twist.  Goleman uses the term to describe Computer Nerds (before being a nerd was chic) who had such specialized knowledge that all interpersonal skills were essentially trained out of them to make room for all the cognitive smarts (explaining @jdferries and his ZERO score in Feeling on the Meyer’s-Briggs Inventory).  The emphasis on the cognitive, the measurable… the right answer trains out the "soft skills" of interpersonal communication, broad scope critical thinking and analysis.

As the selfsame @jdferries and I were discussing the high level of frustration amongst students who resist open-ended, critical thinking assignments (just tell me what you want and I’ll give you the answer!)… which led us on our typical late day, coffee powered dialogue…. ending at the conclusion that we (educators/parents/legislators) inadvertently train students to be incapacitated… we’ve trained them well that there is a correct answer which in turn translates to a grade which reflects mastery of a skill.  JD’s took this further in his parallel post “On Stopwatches...We’ve Trained Them Well”.

At the same time we are training students that the world revolved on single, correct answers...the same educational system is training teachers that there is a single, correct way to teach.  I kept an eye on the Chicago Public School teacher’s strike, happening in part because of an evaluation system attempting to quantify teacher performance on a standardized evaluation.  The same week I was at a meeting of Central Indiana tech directors and PD types discussing how the RISE evaluation system was being translated into computer programs where administrators checked electronic boxes and a teacher’s value is spit out in a spreadsheet.  And then… a vendor cold called (in person, unannounced  – the nerve!) to talk to our principal about his product that promises to cut an administrators workload by 60-70%!  (I intercepted said salesperson as our principal was on retreat and I happened to be loitering at the front desk - lucky him!)

This product promises to AUTOMATE the pre-conference, post conference and teacher growth plan while providing REAL TIME data to Central Office… all while PERSONALIZING the process with rubrics they provide (emphasis theirs – and yes, it’s as ANNOYING in the flyer as it is in this post). It seems we are training teachers and administrators well… To think that there is a correct way to teach.  This correct way can be measured via a computer form, automated into a report that is directly uploaded into a data warehouse to determine teacher performance. 

I argue this insistence of the correct way to teach is creating teachers who are trained to incapacity.  Techs complain teachers won’t try a new technology… of course!  We’ve trained them to wait until some PD trainer comes by and instructs them on the proper way to use the tool.  Administrators complain teachers won’t try a new, innovative educational model…. of course!  We haven’t held a training explaining the 6 (+ 1) traits of the model and how to incorporate the model into the standardized, paced curriculum.  Students complain the class is boring…of course!  We outsourced evaluations to a vendor created rubric which has a box to check that students are “quiet and in order” so classroom practices ensure quiet and order.  We are training the art out of teaching with our insistence on objectively measuring, in the most time efficient manner, the specialized knowledge of the trained professional educator.  And we only have our data driven decision-making selves to blame.

I argue that there is no “right way” to teach.  Certainly not one that can be checked off on an electronic form (although - at least this vendor’s product was cross-platform).  Teaching is an art (and a calling – but that’s another post for another day).  It is influence by who we are as individuals and as a collective body in mission and vision.  In his keynote “When I First Went to School There Was No School” at the International Colloquium on Jesuit Secondary Education, Fr. Agbonkiangmeghe Orobator, SJ asked several times for the audience to reflect on various ideas, all starting with “What if the art of education was… 

 like shepherding and accompanying  those entrusted to us along the path of  knowledge, truth, and discovery?

about making the  impossible possible  – creating new opportunities, enabling latent capabilities, discovering wider horizons, crossing new frontiers, stimulating limitless creativity

a journey of creating community – a community of solidarity, compassion, friendship, and mutual support?”

I suggest you take the time to watch his keynote.  It will change you.  It will change your view of the purpose of education.  I will give you a hint… the purpose is not a correct answer in a box sent in real time to a data warehouse at the Central Office.

Brainstorming at a workshop "If You Could Build Your Ideal School..."

Developing the Whole Teacher

Several Twitter #chats of late have focused on professional development… usually surrounding the idea of how to engage teachers (or more cynically – devolving into how to get teachers to show up for PD trainings and why teachers won’t try anything new).   Many a tweet bemoaning the lack of teacher interest in after school lectures on using social media in the classroom, Stage Two intervention strategies, setting Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) for the Indiana RISE Evaluation program… Topics which advocates claim increase student learning and student engagement because students will achieve if only we meet them where they are and engaging them in the mediums they prefer.  Ok - I buy that "meet them where they are" argument.  But I seldom hear the same thing about engaging TEACHERS as LEARNERS where they are and through the mediums they prefer.   

I’ve written before about shifting from Professional Development to Faculty Formation.  Last January, a small team of faculty/administrators (myself included) began a journey with the Jesuit Secondary Education Association (JSEA) model of faculty formation.  First we inventoried our formation offerings within three areas – Professional, Personal and Spiritual.  Try this exercise… make a 3 column spreadsheet, graph, drawing, 3D model out of clay (BYOT baby…).  Then fill in all the development opportunities your school offers under each category…. It’s okay, I’ll wait…..

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

I will share our experience… by far our fullest column was the Professional.  We offer travel/registration funds, webinars, newsletters, after school/brown bag lunch/just in time workshops… and collaborative professional development locally (Indianapolis private schools), state associations, regional (Independent Schools of the Central States), national (Jesuit Secondary Education Association) memberships/workshops/conferences/materials.  Our second column was Spiritual (we are a Catholic school after all so we hope we have this one covered) full of new teacher monthly formation meetings, prayer groups, Spiritual Exercises, retreats, spiritual directors.  Our distant 3^rd was personal… (we do have an awesome Wellness Committee working toward making us healthier and Wellness Center to sweat in).  But how many PD types really address formation on all these levels? (Not me for one) How many of us administrators are just focused on “professional” opportunities to beat the test (AP Workshops), meet the mandated evaluation requirement (RISE Indiana), or integrate technology (but we bought all those iPads, Jen….).  How many of us are actively planning growth opportunities for the whole teacher?

We talk a lot about educating the whole child.  And that’s great!  I and a lot really, really smart Jesuits concur… but what about the whole teacher?  Even the business world understands the importance of care for the whole employee… why else does Fortune Magazine rate the “Best 100 Companies” every year? (On the list of amenities for 2012 are cafes, bocce courts and other fitness facilities, flexible work schedules, telecommuting, eye brow shaping… and educators are spoiled?).

So let’s start 2012-13 with this challenge… look at the whole teacher and try some formation focused on professional, spiritual (you can insert “mind” here o’public school friends) and personal growth.  Try developing the whole teacher - I bet you find a few more people darkening your door.

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and may your development sessions be full.

PS – remember your administrators too!  We are people too… really, we are… and we like non-fat vanilla latte’s on bad days (thanks @msmooreenglish)!

BYOT In the Classroom

One of the many hats I wear around here is Evaluating Administrator.  This year, we have introduced walkthrough evaluations based on Carolyn Downey's Three-Minute ClassroomWalk-Through model.  I must admit, I am having a marvelous time seeing what is going on in Brebeuf classrooms - especially all the innovative uses of technology (although Dr. Sperry rocked it out with a traditional lesson on diagramming sentences with her Teach-Learn method).  And if I am this excited about what I see and hear... well, good readers, I thought you might be too...

Guiding Student Time Management/Responsibility

Always helps to post clear directions as to what assignment is and expectations for delivery (how student is to get assignment to you).  Now that every student has a device - our learning management system (BlackBoard Engage) is a stronger tool.

Example from Ms Hathaway (Theatre) using Edline Calendar : Each assignment is linked to calendar.  Student clicks on day or assignment and is taken directly to Homework Hand-in.

This example is from Ms Haffley (English 12).  She uses outside sites but clearly notes where Calendar, Assignments, Class Blog is located and gives direct link…  

Blogging

This can be done as a “What We Did Today” in  Ms Annee does in BioTech with her class Edublog

 Or in truer journaling as reflection based on experiences with new material… as this photo from previous semester in Mr. Tague’s Genocide course illustrates.  Tool is Edmodo.com. 

Authentic Experiences

French 5 students with Ms Martin (in her words) “are getting more contact time with the language b/c of BYOT.  They are assigned and immersed in the “real language” through almost daily opportunities to engage in listening and speaking skills (they study excerpts from films, popular television shows, talk shows, daily news, radio programs, etc and then re-group to discuss what they learned) and reading and writing skills (they read newspapers, recipes, advertisements – almost anything you can think of that a native person is exposed to!) and then can correspond with each other or students in France about what they have read….”

US History Students in Mr. Lo's class were asked to created picto-notes (taking a concept and illustrating).  Most students used pencil, paper and markers to create artwork after researching online.  Some students animated their picto-notes in Photoshop.

And here's Computer Science (notice all those lonely desktops) with Ms Dugan... collaborative research project on history of computers.

Even the Administrators hanging out in my office get in on the action...(this is what my day looks like - and you all thought I just made up all that stuff on Twitter...)