Anonymous wrote:So as long as the teachers look on point those 1-2 hour observations, they can slack off all year? I love how you can write reviews and give feedback in almost any type of business, healthy care, lawyer, restaurants etc.. But our kid's education? No input needed. We will have an administrator "observe" them here and there instead.

Exactly what makes you assume that all teachers are just a bunch of slackers? Are you projecting what you would do? Why do you assume that they only want to do well in front of their superiors rather than all the time? It doesn't seem so far fetched to me that at least some teachers might actually have a little integrity. You sound a little too presumptuous and ill-informed here.

Anonymous wrote:If you haven't watched Waiting for Superman I'd highly recommend it. It is not specific to MCPS, but is a fantastic documentary about public schools in our nation as a whole, and does address some of the reforms (and opposition) Michelle Rhee put in place. It's maybe 2 - 3 years old now?

Actually some argue that it is a grossly one-sided and misleading film. If you are truly interested in the topic of education reform and took the time to watch "Waiting for Supeman", you ought to consider watching:

"The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman".

I believe it can be viewed in its entirety (60 min or so) on YouTube.

Anonymous wrote:

Except that this is really hard to measure (so is not very effective) and also depends on where the students started from (so is not necessarily fair).

[/b]Actually, this is not hard to measure at all.[b] Students are tested at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. The teacher is evaluated on the increase or value add that participation in class yielded for the students over that year. This range is compared against other teachers in the same grade across the school and county. Teachers can gain extra points for more significant gains with target populations or students entering who fall behind the baseline.

This is far more effective than a biased buddy system.

Yes, it is hard to measure. Start reading here:

http://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/New%20Logo%20Research%20on%20Teacher%20Evaluation%20AERA-NAE%20Briefing.pdf

Except that this is really hard to measure (so is not very effective) and also depends on where the students started from (so is not necessarily fair).

Actually, this is not hard to measure at all. Students are tested at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. The teacher is evaluated on the increase or value add that participation in class yielded for the students over that year. This range is compared against other teachers in the same grade across the school and county. Teachers can gain extra points for more significant gains with target populations or students entering who fall behind the baseline.

This is far more effective than a biased buddy system.

Anonymous wrote:So as long as the teachers look on point those 1-2 hour observations, they can slack off all year? I love how you can write reviews and give feedback in almost any type of business, healthy care, lawyer, restaurants etc.. But our kid's education? No input needed. We will have an administrator "observe" them here and there instead.

Yes, you're right. Teaching is the only field in which it is possible to slack off.

No, wait.

Anonymous wrote:If you compare the outcomes of students in terms of how much they learned over the year, you would have a much fairer and effective evaluation.

Except that this is really hard to measure (so is not very effective) and also depends on where the students started from (so is not necessarily fair).

So as long as the teachers look on point those 1-2 hour observations, they can slack off all year? I love how you can write reviews and give feedback in almost any type of business, healthy care, lawyer, restaurants etc.. But our kid's education? No input needed. We will have an administrator "observe" them here and there instead.

Peer review in a K-12 environment or having a retired principal observe teachers is a VERY ineffective evaluation model. Its subjective, far to biased on social and personality dynamics, and unintentionally rewards lack of change rather than innovation to improve education.

My child's 1st grade teacher is a complete air head and terrible teacher because she is so scattered. The parents and the kids all know how ineffective she is BUT she's a very nice person. I know that several parents have raised issues but the response is always we observe her and think she's just a wonderful teacher. If you asked the parents to rate the teacher and the staff to rate the teacher you would see a huge gap. The teacher in the class is far better but not as popular with the staff. I'm sure school staff would rate her lower than the air headed one which is sad.

If you compare the outcomes of students in terms of how much they learned over the year, you would have a much fairer and effective evaluation.

In my district, every teacher is observed twice a year formally no matter how many years they've been teaching. We also now have SLOs which are supposed to become part of our evaluation next year. So it will be part observation scores and part student test scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teachers are evaluated in MCPS by administration in their school. Here is a link to evaluation results by school for 2011-2012: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/about/strategicplan/evaluationdatabylocation.pdf

but how the results are obtained? student grades? attendance?

Evaluation does not depend on student grades or attendance.
There are 2 announced (pre-evaluation/evaluation/post evaluation) and many unannounced visits to the classroom years 1,2,3,5 and every 4 years after that.

Some principals ask for an outside evalution (usually a retired MCPS principal). Teachers have to meet 6 categories or else they will be put on PAR (peer assessment review).
Evaluations can be quite subjective.
In my current school there were 2 teachers who were going to be put on PAR, and I believe rightfully so; but then we got another principal and now they are on the new principal's favorite teachers list ...
So if you have teachers you really like and think they are doing a fantastic job, please write letters on their behalf. It's the best gift you can give them, especially if they are being harrassed by administration, which you may not know.

what?

You must be elementary. In secondary schools, the APs and RTs do the observations. RTs are observational only; APs are evaluative.

You know not of what you speak.

Agree with this. ^ This is how it is at my MCPS HS.

Not any of the PPs, but that's pretty rude. This teacher explained the process at his/her school, however biased the explanation. ES could very well be different from secondary.

We are formally evaluated regularly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teachers are evaluated in MCPS by administration in their school. Here is a link to evaluation results by school for 2011-2012: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/about/strategicplan/evaluationdatabylocation.pdf

but how the results are obtained? student grades? attendance?

Evaluation does not depend on student grades or attendance.
There are 2 announced (pre-evaluation/evaluation/post evaluation) and many unannounced visits to the classroom years 1,2,3,5 and every 4 years after that.

Some principals ask for an outside evalution (usually a retired MCPS principal). Teachers have to meet 6 categories or else they will be put on PAR (peer assessment review).
Evaluations can be quite subjective.
In my current school there were 2 teachers who were going to be put on PAR, and I believe rightfully so; but then we got another principal and now they are on the new principal's favorite teachers list ...
So if you have teachers you really like and think they are doing a fantastic job, please write letters on their behalf. It's the best gift you can give them, especially if they are being harrassed by administration, which you may not know.

what?

You must be elementary. In secondary schools, the APs and RTs do the observations. RTs are observational only; APs are evaluative.

You know not of what you speak.

Agree with this. ^ This is how it is at my MCPS HS.

Evaluated by outside principals twice at the middle school level 6 years ago and 2 years ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teachers are evaluated in MCPS by administration in their school. Here is a link to evaluation results by school for 2011-2012: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/about/strategicplan/evaluationdatabylocation.pdf

but how the results are obtained? student grades? attendance?

Evaluation does not depend on student grades or attendance.
There are 2 announced (pre-evaluation/evaluation/post evaluation) and many unannounced visits to the classroom years 1,2,3,5 and every 4 years after that.

Some principals ask for an outside evalution (usually a retired MCPS principal). Teachers have to meet 6 categories or else they will be put on PAR (peer assessment review).
Evaluations can be quite subjective.
In my current school there were 2 teachers who were going to be put on PAR, and I believe rightfully so; but then we got another principal and now they are on the new principal's favorite teachers list ...
So if you have teachers you really like and think they are doing a fantastic job, please write letters on their behalf. It's the best gift you can give them, especially if they are being harrassed by administration, which you may not know.

what?

You must be elementary. In secondary schools, the APs and RTs do the observations. RTs are observational only; APs are evaluative.

You know not of what you speak.