At the beginning of December I posted a post about Diane Ravitch’s really nice piece published in the Huffington Post about what she views as a much better paradigm for teacher evaluation and accountability. Diane Ravitch posted another on similar alternatives, although this one was written by teachers themselves.
I thought this was more than appropriate, especially given a New Year is upon us, and while it might very well be wishful thinking, perhaps at least some of our state policy makers might be willing to think in new ways about what really could be new and improved teacher evaluation systems. Cheers to that!
The main point here, though, is that alternatives do, indeed, exist. Likewise, it’s not that teachers do not want to be held accountable for, and evaluated on that which they do, but they do want whatever systems are in place (formal or informal) to be appropriate, professional, and fair. How about that for policy-based resolution.
This is from Diane’s post: The Wisdom of Teachers: A New Vision of Accountability.
Anyone who criticizes the current regime of test-based accountability is inevitably asked: What would you replace it with? Test-based accountability fails because it is based on a lack of trust in professionals. It fails because it confuses measurement with instruction. No doctor ever said to a sick patient, “Go home, take your temperature hourly, and call me in a month.” Measurement is not a treatment or a cure. It is measurement. It doesn’t close gaps: it measures them.
Here is a sound alternative approach to accountability, written by a group of teachers whose collective experience is 275 years in the classroom. Over 900 teachers contributed ideas to the plan. It is a new vision that holds all actors responsible for the full development and education of children, acknowledging that every child is a unique individual.
Its key features:
- Shared responsibility, not blame
- Educate the whole child
- Full and adequate funding for all schools, with less emphasis on standardized testing
- Teacher autonomy and professionalism
- A shift from evaluation to support
- Recognition that in education one size does not fit all
