Teacher Effectiveness

Speaking of teacher effectiveness, and after having listened to dozens of podcasts focusing on Michelle Rhee, I have an example from Rhee that gets at how to evaluate teachers . . . and not just on test scores either.

Rhee is very fond of telling the story where she goes to visit - unannounced - one of her inner city schools. She ducks in the door of one elementary school teacher and grabs a vacant chair. The kids are seated around the teacher, who is leading them through a discussion on a story they just read. The story involves a group of modern day people (I believe it might have been a teacher and her class) who travel back to the days of Greek gods and goddesses.

The teacher asks the students to look around the room at the posters of the Greek gods and goddesses and choose one that they think would be the best candidate to lead the people back to modern times.

The first kid shoots his hand into the air and states Zues. He is the god of gods . . . no need to mess around . . . go straight to the top and cut out the middle man.

A second student looks around the room and raises her hand. She would choose the god of women and children. She explains that these are children and their teacher. The god of women and children would take care of her 'peeps' and protect them.

A third student offers the god of music. Rhee, sitting in the back with her own obvious choice and answer, thinks a total misfire kid. Too bad. But the student goes on to explain how in the story the people were transported back in time by playing a magical lute. So asking the god of music for help would be a good idea.

Rhee thinks, whoa. That's a great answer. Look at what this teacher is getting out of these kids!

Then Rhee goes on to confess that there are several more answers proffered before her ever lame answer of the god of travel! And they were all better than her answer!

So even though Rhee is 100% behind test scores, she offers this as an example of excellent teaching. However, using her own ideas against her, how does she know how these kids did on the test? What happens if half failed? Does that mean the teacher is now bad?

Certainly, these kids were learning to analyze and support and predict. All great, vital skills. But there are also so many factors that go into a kid doing well on a test that I'm not sold on solely valuing a teacher's performance on how kids test.

But Rhee also gives us a way that, I think, will make teachers more comfortable with being evaluated on more than just tests - observation. Come in and watch teaching. You can't tell me an administrator can't sit in on 10 minutes of a class and know when effective instruction is taking place.

This is what I'm for - paying teachers for performance, but not just the kids . . . their own as well. Pay them extra if you want or reward them or recognize them, but do it as a doctor would try to treat a patient who came in because of a test result. They would do another test, maybe take a sample, maybe send them to a specialist . . . any number of things would be done.

We need to take that approach in both evaluating students and teachers.