Teacher Evaluations

There are many ways that schools and districts evaluate teachers. My school does formal teacher evaluations twice a year for new teachers, and there are several informal observations throughout the year.  The two methods I will be looking at are centered around test scores, but as David (2010) suggests, “end-of-year test scores do not show how much students learned that year in that class.” So let’s take a look at those teacher evaluation methods.  

Value Added Measures

This strategy compares students’ current scores with past scores. The Edglossary Website (2013) describes value-added measures as a method “used to estimate or quantify how much of a positive (or negative) effect individual teachers have on student learning during the course of a given school year.” The Edglossary Website (2013) goes on to say “value-added measures typically use sophisticated statistical algorithms and standardized-test results, combined with other information about students, to determine a value-added score for a teacher.” In other words, students’ current and past test scores are taken into account to determine how well teachers are teaching their students.

The Good

This is good because it takes continuous changes into account, rather than one single change.  Hull (2013) says this method recognizes that “not all students are likely to make the same growth from year to year.”  The teacher can work to improve student scores from prior months and years to show that the student is learning. In addition, the teacher is aware of the measures they must beat in order to receive a good evaluation.

The Not-So-Good 

Some students freeze up on tests, so any sort of evaluation that relies too heavily on test results might not be the best measure of student capability. It doesn’t take enough pieces of teaching life into account, and so it may not be an accurate measurement of student learning and knowledge. It also doesn’t take into account student learning disabilities and language barriers that may cause students to do poorly.

Student Growth Percentiles

The Edglossary Website (2013) says that student-growth measures “compare the relative change in a student’s performance on a specific test with the performance of all other students on that same test.” In other words, a student’s growth is measured against each other student’s growth to see where they rank on the scale of most to least proficient.

The Good

I agree with Hull (2013), who says this method is “more accurate at evaluating teachers than student test scores, which capture performance at one point in time.”

The Not-So-Good

Testing should not be used solely, or even heavily, in a teacher evaluation. Not only do some students test poorly, there are other students who test well. They can study the night before, pass the test well, and then remember nothing of the material they learned. This is another good reason why this measure isn’t great. Students are all different, with different needs, likes, and ideas. Any evaluation method that measures student scores against each other on a standardized test won’t take those differences into account.

My opinion

There are several things I think that administrators should take into account during an evaluation, and in different percentages.

30% - Standardized tests – The changes in test scores should only comprise 30% of a teacher’s evaluation because, as I mentioned above, there are many reasons why a student’s score might be accurately reflected on standardized tests. For example, some students are very good at testing logic and guessing, but may not understand the concepts they are expected to know.

10% - Essay – I believe that Essay questions or knowledge reports should account for 10% because they allow students to show accurate knowledge, and are far more accurate than multiple choice standardized tests.

30% Random samples of class work – Random samples of work done by students can truly illustrate student learning, so if these samples account for roughly 1/3 of the teacher’s evaluation, it would help administrators understand what the class really knows and what sort of work they really do on a day-to-day basis.

30% Classroom evaluations and lesson plans – There should be several evaluations, both formal and informal, and along with the teacher’s lesson plans, these should account for the remaining 30% of a teacher’s evaluation.

I think this would give a well-rounded view of what teachers are teaching and how much of it students are learning and internalizing.  

Resources

David, J., (2010). What Research Says About… / Using Value-Added Measures to Evaluate Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/may10/vol67/num08/Using_Value-Added_Measures_to_Evaluate_Teachers.aspx

Diaz-Bilello, E., & Briggs, D., C., (July 2014). Using Student Growth Percentiles for Educator Evaluations at the Teacher Level: Key Issues and Technical Considerations for School Districts in Colorado. Retrieved from https://www.cde.state.co.us/educatoreffectiveness/usingstudentgrowthpercentilesforee

Edglossary Website, (Aug 29, 2013). VALUE-ADDED MEASURES. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/value-added-measures/

Hull, J., (Oct, 2013) Trends In Teacher Evaluation: How states are measuring teacher performance. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Evaluating-performance/Trends-in-Teacher-Evaluation-At-A-Glance/Trends-in-Teacher-Evaluation-Full-Report-PDF.pdf

Strategies for Differentiation with Pre-Assessment

Strategies for Differentiation with Pre-Assessment


I've been thinking a lot about assessments lately and how I can use them to help my students.
There are so many kinds of assessments, but the one I want to talk about today is the pre-assessment and what we, as teachers, can do with it.
My standard is related to students finding information in multiple texts quickly and accurately. In preparation, I created a pretest for my upcoming unit. If you look below, you can see the screencap of some of my questions, which focus mostly on the tools I want to share with the students; close reading, skimming, and scanning.

Want to test your knowledge? Take my quiz.

I have the assessment to help me know who gets it and who doesn't. Now what do I do with the information? Well, I've got a plan...

 Above is a mind map with my plans for the pre-assessment information. There are 3 types of students I'm primarily thinking about (the ones who got most to all answers correct, the ones who got many correct, and those who got few to no answers correct), and below I'm going to talk about what I plan to do to help them. *Note: the extension strategies in this differentiation will require me to create an app where students can create or find articles on the same subject, then close read them to find answers to questions.*

The students who answered most questions correctly.

These students need to extend their knowledge into deeper depths of knowledge. I will pair these students with students who have limited knowledge or learning issues. This pairing will enhance that student's thinking because they will have to use the knowledge they have gained in new ways if they want to accurately explain and model their thinking. In addition to this, students will be asked to consider another story they have read with similar information and compare and contrast the two. The students will then be asked to use the app to create two articles about the same subject and present them to the class to be close read as a small or whole group. These extended activities, as well as discussions with their partner, will work as formative assessments and self assessments that the student and I can use to assess their learning.

The students who have some knowledge

These students really need practice to solidify the knowledge they already have. I will give them practice close reading, scanning, and skimming. Then students will be paired within the group to discuss how they felt these techniques might help them find answers. To extend their learning even more, I will then ask them to use the app to find their own articles (two or more articles on the same subject) and close read them in pairs, then show the group how close reading helped them find the answers. These differentiations should help these students get more practice with the skills I'm trying to teach, and, in addition, it should help them explore and explain their understanding of those skills.

The students who appear to have limited knowledge 

These students will not only be students who have never encountered the standards, but also ELL and special needs students as well. For these students, I will take some time to model the strategies we will be using. These students will then be paired with a student who understands the standard. In addition, I will give the student a bookmark that can remind them of the rules of close reading, skimming, and scanning. To extend their knowledge, I will have them use the app to close read articles, skim, and scan, then have their choices evaluated. These activities will give the students multiple chances to learn the teacher and student modeled skills, it will allow them a constant reminder of how to complete the skill, and it will allow them to practice in a way that will give them immediate feedback.

What do you think about my pre-assessment and the identified strategies for differentiation? Do you use pre-assessments? How do you feel about them?

High Stakes Testing in Schools

I’ve been talking to other teachers about high stakes testing and how they feel it affects our school and our classes. I’ll share the questions I asked and the answers I gave. Feel free to share your point of view below.

The interview.

How much time is spent in testing?

We have a total of 4 tests, 3 that the district uses for assessment and one that the state uses.

How does the school use high stakes assessments?

They are used to see how students are progressing, assess how teachers are improving, and how schools rank in the district as a whole.

Are teachers teaching to the test?

Teachers are not encouraged or expected to teach to the test. It’s more important that the students get a quality education, however, the test is heavily considered in deciding how to teach students.

Are rewards or bonuses given to teachers whose students score high?

No. Teachers are encouraged to do their best, but there are no incentives for great scores.

Are students required to pass the test to move to the next grade or graduate?

Only the state test can affect if students graduate. If a third grade student does not pass the state exam, they are not allowed to graduate to fourth grade.

How are students handling increasing pressures to perform?

Students either find the assessment weeks stressful or they believe it’s unimportant. 

Are test scores used for teacher evaluations?

Yes, teachers are considered developing, effective, or highly effective depending on average student scores.

Other schools-

Other schools vary on how they motivate for and use high stakes assessments.  One teacher I spoke with said that there is a lot of pressure from testing in her school. Teachers are pressured because their class scores are scrutinized. There is pressure for students to perform as well. Students feel the stress of the teachers and are incentivized by free time and movies for good performance. Low students can often become depressed because they feel like they can’t possibly perform well enough. In addition, she suggested that teachers are almost forced to teach to the test to ensure that their proficiency rate is adequate.

My thoughts.

The Good

The tests do what they were meant to do… help with data collection. These tests measure students’ progress on standards for teachers and parents to see. These results can be brought up and studied throughout the years and patterns and growth can be assessed from them.  

The Bad

I really feel as if standardized tests, especially high stakes tests, are more harmful than helpful in many situations. Mitchell (2006) says “counselors thought their state's high-stakes testing increased stress in teachers, students, and themselves.” Students are stressed by the tests. The high pressure setting can make certain students underperform and seem as if they do not understand the standards they have learned. Students with disabilities, as well as students with alternate learning styles, are often unable to perform to the high standards of the test. This can be extremely stressful for them, as well as their teachers, who are often judged heavily on class-wide performance on these high stakes tests.

Mitchell (2006) also mentions that “critics of high-stakes testing generally report four negative classroom effects produced by testing… narrowing the curriculum…excluding topics not tested…reducing learning to the memorization of facts, (and) devoting too much classroom time to test preparation.” Teachers are almost made to teach to the test. Such importance is placed on getting good results during testing periods that teachers are forced to focus on tests, sometimes to the exclusion of other necessary learning. Because of this, students might not have a well-rounded class experience and learning may suffer.

And The Conclusion

From what I observed at my school, and what was confirmed from the teacher in the other district, these tests can be far more stressful than needed. While they have benefits, I believe those benefits could be maximized by removing some of the high stakes elements and giving students and teachers the ability, hand-in-hand and through multiple forms of assessment, to give a more accurate view of a student’s overall knowledge and learning.

References - 

Mitchell, R. (Feb. 10, 2006) High-stakes testing and effects on instruction: Research review. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Instruction/High-stakes-testing-and-effects-on-instruction-At-a-glance/High-stakes-testing-and-effects-on-instruction-Research-review.html

What’s your opinion? Are you fer high stakes testin’, or agin’ it? :D

Thoughts on Assessment - Lesson Planning.

In my most recent lesson planning, I decided to build a unit for RI.5.7, and I’ve been thinking about formative assessments.

In case you don’t know the difference, the Eberly Center website (n.d.) says “the goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning,” in contrast, “the goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.”

The objective:

At the completion of day 4 of this 5 day unit, 90-95% of students will be able to examine print and digital resources for 10 minutes and use in order to quickly locate answers with 80% accuracy.

This will be a short reminder of how to skim and scan for information. Then students will be given two articles on the same subject. Then I will follow up with a graduated release of responsibility close read using the I do, We do, You do method and ending in a completed group scavenger hunt worksheet. There are many ways I can assess this, but since I’m really looking at the formative, I wanted to talk about a few assessments I’m considering as part of this lesson plan.

1-     Think-Pair-Share– West Virginia website (n.d.) says the “Think-Pair-Share is a summarization strategy that can be used in any content area.” I will discuss with the students what they know and what we’ve previously learned about the three techniques used in this particular lesson; close read, skimming, and scanning. They will then pair and share what they think. We will then repeat for the branches of government.

2-     The close read. – In close reading students look closely at the text and notice how the article has been segmented and draw connections between the texts (Greenstein, n.d.). I can watch students as they close read to see if they are highlighting the important information in the text. I feel that this small step alone can make or break a student’s ability to find accurate information. If students have highlighted the important sections and circled powerful vocabulary in the text, it is quite likely that they have highlighted or circled the answers to the questions.

3-     Reciprocal Discussions – Dodge City Middle School (n.d.) says during Whisper-Skim-Scan students use fingers “to skim and scan the text, while they whisper key words.” This will help students to find key terms that might be in questions they must answer. Skimming and scanning are great tools for reading and finding information quickly (Beale, 2013). Listen to student discussion for signs of understanding how to skim and scan and what information is integral and what is superfluous. This will allow me to see if students understand how to use close reading and scanning to find information quickly and accurately.

References

Beale, A. M., (Feb 4, 2013). Skimming And Scanning: Two Important Strategies For Speeding Up Your Reading. Retrieved from http://www.howtolearn.com/2013/02/skimming-and-scanning-two-important-strategies-for-speeding-up-your-reading/

Dodge City Middle School website. (n.d.). Formative Assessment. Retrieved from http://dodgecitymiddleschool.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/61883414/Formative%20Assessment.pdf

Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation. (n.d.). What is the difference between formative and summative assessment? Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html

Greenstein, L., (n.d.). What Teachers Really Need To Know About Formative Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.ocmboces.org/tfiles/folder874/DailyFormativeAssessment.pptx 

West Virginia Dept of Ed website. (n.d.). Think-Pair-Share. Retrieved from https://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/Think-Pair-Share.html

Picture from Wiki Commons

The original uploader was Hwilliams at English Wikibooks https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lesson_Plan_Template.pdf

More Thoughts on Lesson Planning.

I’d love to share my thoughts on creating lesson plans. It’s important to really think about all the parts and pieces of a standard while creating a lesson plan.

Unpacking a standard

Unpacking a standard helps a teacher to reflect on all the parts of a standard and discover how many activities are hidden within the standard.

Example standard;

(5.RI.3) “Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.” (AZ Dept of Education, 2010)

This standard is not simply about the relationships between two or more individuals in a historical text. It has many layers. Even the simple difference between explaining the relationships and explaining the interactions can require a teacher to use two lessons. Another way a teacher might have to alter the instruction would be the specific texts. The standard does not simply call for historical texts, it also mentions scientific and technical texts. It’s important that a teacher see all the parts of a standard and address them. This gives students the best opportunity to succeed in tests and in life.

Backwards mapping

This type of lesson planning helps a teacher develop a more interesting and pointed plan. The teacher knows what assessment he/she intends to give, and can tailor the lesson to that particular assessment. It also helps the teacher stay focused on the lesson at hand, instead of veering off on a possible tangent that isn’t needed for the current standard and does not enhance the standard.

Example standard;

For this standard, I might begin with an assessment where students must discuss the interactions between multiple figures during the revolutionary war. Alternately, I might have students enumerate the relationship between two scientific theories they are reading about.

Writing objectives

Writing SMART objectives helps a teacher verbalize their final goal for student understanding.

Smart Goals are Specific, Measurable or observable, Attainable for the audience, Relevant and results oriented, Target to learner and desired level of learning. These goals help the teacher measure if a lesson was effective for the bulk of students and offer an expected time frame for this student learning.

Example standard;

This standard should be effective for 80-90% of students. They should be able to explain the interactions between multiple figures in the revolutionary war with 80% accuracy.  

Resources

Arizona Department Of Education Website. (June, 2010). Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards English Language Arts. Retrieved from https://cms.azed.gov/home/GetDocumentFile?id=550c579caadebe15d072a992

Planning my RI.5.7 Unit

I’m creating a unit lesson for my students to work on and I thought I’d show you how I plan to create the lessons in the unit. I teach 5^th grade elementary, so I’ve chosen a common core standard from the state of Arizona’s 5th grade curriculum. I want to explore this standard because the fifth grade students I work with are developing their logic and they need help with exploring different articles and finding information in those texts.

RI.5.7 --- Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

There are several lessons that can come from this standard, once it has been unpacked that should lead to them being able to do the following proficiently (note how each one rolls into the next to make a unit);

1.     Students can use multiple print sources to find information.

2.     Students can use multiple digital sources to find information.

3.     Students can locate answers quickly in digital and/or print texts.

4.     Students can use multiple print and digital sources to solve a problem in an efficient manner.

5.     Extending the standard - Students can use multiple digital and print sources to debate and defend their solution.

How will I know the students got these skills? The assessments;

1.     Students will complete a worksheet with questions from two newspaper articles on a similar topic.

2.     Students will complete a worksheet with questions about the three branches of government.

3.     Students will have 20 minutes to find and write out the answers to 20 questions.

4.     Students will read multiple “witness accounts” of the same mystery or crime.

5.     Students will write debate notes and verbally defend their solution.

How will I get them there? The activities;

1.     Students will use multiple print sources to answer questions correctly.

2.     Students will use multiple digital sources to answer questions correctly with cited sources.

3.     Students will work in groups to complete a timed online scavenger hunt and locate answers quickly in digital and/or print texts.

4.     Students will use multiple print and digital sources to solve a mystery in an efficient manner.

5.     Extending the standard - Students can use multiple digital and print sources to debate and defend their solution to the mystery.

Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is more important to classroom management than consequences, in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly a place for the turned card and the parent phone call, but I believe that positivity begets positivity. Because of this, I want to spend a few hundred words discussing the behavior management strategies in my school and classroom.

The most important thing to remember according to Smith (pg. 2), is that “what may be extremely motivating for one student may be entirely useless for another.”   That’s why teachers must have many different routes to travel as far as their behavior management.  Here is my typical mental process when I need to discipline students.

A closer view of this diagram is included at the end of the blog.

In my class, I use a lot of token reinforcement which, according to Smith (pg. 1) “involves awarding points or tokens for appropriate behavior. These rewards have little value in themselves but can be exchanged for something of value.” So you will see a few examples of this below.

Here are a few examples of what I would do in specific situations.

Misbehavior

1)      A female student isn’t working. She isn’t bothering anyone, but she is sitting in silence and creating origami stars out of paper.

For this student, I need to act quickly, but I do not need to address it aloud. I’d walk up silently. If she didn’t change her behavior, I’d tap her desk quietly. When she looked up, I would take the paper then tap her class work.

2)      A male student is taking the pencils off other student’s desks and breaking them. He has just snapped a pencil during math.

For this student, I need to address it immediately. I’d tell him, in a quiet but firm tone, to put it down and clip his card. I would then give the other students a problem to work independently. If he did not comply, I would tell him that he needed to do what I asked, or he would face further problems. If the student continued to refuse, he might end up with a write up or phone call home.

Appropriate student behavior.

1)      A female student is on task, working hard to complete her assignment in spite of some quiet chatter around the room.

I would walk up and place a paw-sitive slip on her desk and when she looked up, I would give her a smile or nod to show her that I approved of her behavior. I might then walk around with a few paw-sitives held very obviously in my hand, looking for more students who were on task to encourage other students to improve their behavior.

2)      A male student is waiting as the class line as they return from specials. As the class enters the room, the student in front of him drops her backpack and he stops to help her pick them up.

When we enter the classroom, I would say to the class that I saw a student being an exemplary model employee. I would then say what he did and add give him a bonus slip he could use to buy something from the class store. This might get him a no homework pass or a physical object.   

Here are examples of positive student reinforcement; school-wide and class-wide.

Resources

Smith, K., (n.d.) Positive Reinforcement... a proactive intervention for the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.cehd.umn.edu/CEED/publications/tipsheets/preschoolbehavior/posrein.pdf