John Tenny

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  John commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  How Do We Rate Teacher Effectiveness?

  Rating of teachers by a range of observers is fraught with dangers. For a 'rating' to be valid there needs to be efforts to establish Rater Reliability - that there is no hidden bias or counter definition of terms at work.Another approach is for various observers to gather objective data on the classroom behaviors. This needs to be done not by recording opinions, but by gathering data using clearly defined behaviors and recording frequency or duration of the behavior (i.e. Level of questions being answered by students or the teacher's response to student errors, etc). Please look at the eCOVE Observation Software (www.ecove.net), which does all this and more. Disclaimer: I wrote it after 30 years in the classroom.     If the data is presented to the teacher without praise, without criticism, and without 'solutions' it empowers the teacher to make changes as indicated, objectively test new curriculum or behavior plans, and measure incremental growth. Teachers are competent professionals who need less 'evaluation' and more objective feedback in the form of observation data - not anyone's opinion or judgment.  John@ecove.net

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  John commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  How Do We Rate Teacher Effectiveness?

  There is a software tool that can greatly enhance observations, including those based on Danielson's work. It's called eCOVE Observation Software and includes 40 tools for collecting objective data on classroom behaviors (teachers and/or students).    For instance, Danielson lists student engagement as one of the targets for a rating of 'proficient', certainly reasonable. eCOVE can track the amount and percent of time-on-task of either individual students or an entire class; and track the number, percent and types of questions that students ask (another measure of engagement), etc. These timers and counters make the process of feedback to teachers clear and objective; the data can be gathered by a colleague, administrator, even students.     You can download a 30 day trial at www.ecove.net. Disclaimer: I wrote the software after 30 years in classrooms.