Principal Thoughts

Educator Evaluations - Principal Thoughts
4.24.15

Over the course of my career I have been lucky enough to participate in both the development and improvement of educator evaluations.  As a principal, I tried to make the process as reflective as possible with a focus on improvement and not punishment.  While this approach may have been my goal, it was not always what occurred depending on who was sitting across from me.  When I think about how educator evaluations should be completed I recommend the following process:

Start early:  I can't tell you how many times I have talked to teachers or principals and there is an evaluation being completed directly after an observation in May.  This is not going to improve the education in your buildings.  You need to start early and observe often.  I always tried to start right away in September with walk throughs and have all observations completed by early April at the latest. 

Focus on the walk throughs:  Walk throughs are the key to a quality evaluation.  Popping in for ten minutes, focusing on something specific, will give more information at times then a full blown observation.  We know this right, but how often should this occur?  I recommend at LEAST 5 classrooms for 10 minutes every week....but TRY to go back to the same classrooms a second time in the week.  You will be able to connect the activities better.  Also, I found it helpful to actually schedule the walk throughs in my calendar so I would not overlap the time.

Be a coach:  My coach in high school was by far the best coach I ever met.  She forced us to work hard, always improve, and she would never accept excuses for mediocre work.  I have a tendency to be a bit too blunt at times and I like to think I get it from her.  Over the years, I would work hard at softening the edges in evaluation meetings, but to be honest, that never got me very far when working with educators on improving instruction.  Sometimes you need to be that coach.  The one that gives solid constructive feedback, but doesn't accept excuses and always wants to see their best.

Plan for improvement for all teachers:  When working with educators, I always focused on improving the instruction whether they were ranked minimally effective or highly effective.  We all have something we need to work on.  Now granted, some may have had more to work on than others, but everyone always left my office with a plan for at least two elements to work on for the next year.

Reflection:  Educators need ownership in the process and of their own instruction.  There are a number of ways to achieve this.  One, goal setting at the beginning of the year is always an important activity.  The goals should be reflective of the areas needing improvement from last year's evaluation, but written by the staff member.  Two, self-evaluations, if implemented correctly, can be useful in having reflective dialogue.  The debate continues as to when this process should occur.  After having have staff complete at the beginning and end of the year, I think the end of the year is more productive and reflective.  Finally, a portfolio to reflect upon not only their instruction, but also their goals and student growth.