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Student groups demand opportunity to give input on teacher evaluation
By: Rebecca Harris / March 27, 2012
Dan Chu, a student from Boston, talks about Boston Public Schools’ use of student surveys to gauge teacher effectiveness.
Two citywide youth groups packed CPS headquarters Tuesday afternoon to ask the district to incorporate student surveys into teacher evaluation.
“We are the ones in the classroom, and we are the ones impacted by the quality of the teachers,” said Timothy Anderson, a student at Gage Park High School and a member of Voices of Youth in Chicago Education. VOYCE joined with students from the Mikva Challenge, an organization dedicated to youth civic engagement, in making their request.
Anderson said one of his best teachers takes extra time to explain concepts when students don’t understand them. He worries that she might not be fairly evaluated by test scores or “a 5-minute observation.”
District officials responded that they “fully support” getting student feedback in the evaluation process.
District spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said that the idea is based in research, which shows that student surveys are reliable, at least when done by the same group of students over time. It can “deliver consistent information regarding teachers that [has] a very strong correlation to student growth,” she said.
The issue of teacher evaluation is a hot one at the moment. CPS and union officials are in the process of negotiating the details of the teacher evaluation process. A state law calls for teacher evaluation to be revamped statewide.
Because CPS must implement the new evaluation at 300 schools this September, it is expected that they will soon announce details so that they can train principals and other evaluators on how to use it. The union and CPS started talking about the evaluations in December. By law, after negotiating with CTU for 90 days, CPS can impose its own teacher evaluation scheme at any time.
Recently passed state rules dictate that a quarter of the evaluation be tied to student growth measures in the first year. In the second year, student growth measures must count for 30 percent of the evaluation.
CPS and the union are hashing out how the student growth measure will look. The district can use value-added state standardized test scores solely, or can use a combination of assessments, including ones designed by teachers or the district.
The students at the press conference Tuesday said they did not agree with using value-added measures of student growth. They also do not want student surveys used until after a two-year pilot process.
The Chicago Teachers Union is in agreement with them on both counts. “We would like to see how that feedback [from students] would look, and that’s why we support a pilot… we would like to see the results of the pilot and then make a decision based on that,” says Carol Caref, coordinator of the Chicago Teachers Union’s Quest Center.
Caref said that value-added measures are unreliable, and that their implementation has been rushed. On Monday, a group of academics announced they were sending a letter to CPS and city officials detailing the problems with those measurements.
The district must decide not only how much of a teacher’s rating depends on value-added scores, but also what scores will constitute the top and bottom ends of the scale.
“You could say the bottom one-tenth of a percent of teachers will be rated unsatisfactory, or you could say some other number,” Caref says. “That is one of the problems with value-added, it’s based on ranking. Someone’s going to be at the bottom, no matter how good they are.”
In addition to deciding the details of student growth measurement, the union and CPS officials are negotiating over the framework for teacher observation to be used in evaluation. District officials have said they can’t comment on ongoing negotiations.
Caref says CTU is in favor of using Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, a framework that has been found to be a reliable measure of good teaching. Caref says, however, that the district and CPS have no formal agreement yet. , CPS also developed and piloted its own framework, known as “Teaching for Learning,” last school year.
teaching
At the end of the day are we going to give our students a receipt and ask them to fill out a survey in order to have the chance to win a 5000 gift card? Ok so we have to please the board, the principal, the teacher, the parents, the test scores? You know what they say about pleasing ALL people at all times???? Honestly, who will want to teach? I say we allow those students to judge us who don't miss more than 2 school days a year and do their homework and don't call us some racially motivated cuss word?
Aren't we supposed to teach all students?
I have my students evaluate me at the end of every year in all my classes. I've received very valuable feedback from them to improve my teaching... actually more valuable than most I've received from administrators who only observe my class a couple of times per year for a short time. I value the honest anonymous feedback of students who miss lots of school as well as those who have perfect attendance. If a student was cussing me out using racial slurs that would indicate a serious problem, some of which might be due to what I'm doing or should be doing. This would be a good person to hear from. Some students don't take the evals seriously, but in my experience almost all of them do and the info is very helpful. My experience is from 6th to 12th grade and evals have been helpful every year.
Phil
You are right we do need to teach all students. This is not the point.
However, not every student is mature enough to evaluate their teacher (no matter the grade). You are right to survey your students, but do you want CPS to come up with some generic survey that your students MUST fill out? Then you are given part of your salary based on this? What you are doing is a great idea...but if it becomes "institutionalized" like the ISAT etc...you may not like the results. Informal surveys are awesome...but wait until your Principal gets some CPS created student survey ...........just saying
Skeptical about student evals
When I first started teaching in CPS many years ago, I asked students at the end of the year to evaluate my performance. They put very little thought into the activity. Generally, they liked it when I brought them treats, but disliked it when I followed school rules. Rarely was anything about my teaching mentioned. (I remember one young man who was rather impressed with my shoes.) Although I tried it for about three years, there was never anything useful that I gleaned from the evaluations, and I discontinued them.
Whether students give their teachers a thumbs up or thumbs down in general can be very informative in terms of whether students can connect with their teachers. But it isn't a very good way to improve teaching and learning, much less evaluate teachers.
to danny
I agree danny!! 100%
Imagine the hit you take on the survey from the Kid who never attends your class on the ISAT score and then to have to take another hit on the Student Survery why he "hates" your class???
Why not have students evaluate teachers?
members on LSCs-many have no background in running a school or business, some may be even felons, teacher reps are out to get the principal--this is allowed. everyone should evaluate everybody!
lsc??
Hmmm how do you know all teacher reps are out to get the principal? That is a broad statement. Also, our CPS board is made up of people who never even went to CPS or taught in a classroom or at lease most...so a parent actually knows more about CPS than our own board knows? Also, if an ex felon paid his dues, shouldnt he have a say in his child's education? You need to reread what democracy means...it doesnt mean rubber stamp only your own ideas...like our mayor does!!
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