Comprehensive teaching frameworks are not just for evaluation.

by Paul Mielke and Tony Frontier

In the classroom, effective teachers use rubrics not just as summative tools to determine students' grades, but also as exemplars that they apply across entire units to guide students' efforts to improve. The language of the rubrics becomes the language of the curriculum.

In the same way, both supervisors and teachers need to use comprehensive teaching frameworks not just for summative teacher evaluation, but rather to guide improvement throughout the school year. Used in this way, these frameworks can create a common language for practice, focusing teachers' collaborative efforts to identify and implement specific research-based instructional strategies and behaviors.

We need to transcend the common practice of making administrators the primary users of comprehensive teaching frameworks. At a minimum, teachers can use comprehensive frameworks to guide their daily practice—for example, to assist in lesson planning, prioritize strategies for whole-group instruction, or select alternative strategies for students who require more challenge or support.

F.A.Q.s Question: How often will teachers be evaluated in the new evaluation system?

Each teacher is evaluated once a year, but evidence of effective classroom instruction may take more than just the traditional observation. Artifacts and evidence throughout the year will also show teaching practices and performance.

eVal Management Tool?

eVAL is a web-based tool designed to manage the evaluation process. Supported by a Gates Foundation grant and developed in partnership with the Washington Education Association, Educational Service District 113, and OSPI, eVAL is:

• A free resource for all Washington school districts
• Includes each district’s chosen instructional and leadership framework, resources, and documents
• Voluntary for all districts
• Secure with limited access (physically and virtually) to its servers

F.A.Q.s - Question: Will counselors, psychologists, occupational and physical therapists be using the new evaluation system?

Answer:

Counselors, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, occupational and physical therapists and other “non-classroom” staff will continue to use their current evaluation process and standards for now. SB 6696 did not include new provisions for evaluations of these staff categories. We will work with representatives from these groups to develop their evaluation system in the future. Other districts have done this, and we can build on their experience.

Evaluation Purpose

The purposes of evaluations of certificated classroom teachers shall be, at a minimum:

1. To acknowledge the critical importance of teacher and leadership quality and support professional learning as the underpinning of the new evaluation system.
2. To identify in consultation with certificated classroom teachers, principals, and assistant principals, particular areas in which the professional performance is distinguished, proficient, basic, or unsatisfactory, and particular areas in which the classroom teacher needs to improve his or her performance.
3. To assist certificated classroom teachers and certificated principals and assistant principals, who have identified areas needing improvement, in making those improvements.

F.A.Q.s - Question: What are the frameworks?

Answer:

The instructional frameworks are models of teaching and learning developed by nationally recognized educational research organizations. Montesano has chosen the framework developed by the University of Washington College of Education - Center for Educational Leadership (CEL). The chosen framework is called the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning.