Insights

How are you recording and collecting qualitative and/or quantitative evidence during your formal and informal classroom observations/walkthroughs? How are you sharing this feedback with your teachers and encouraging reflection to foster professional growth? Recently there has been an increased focus on formative evaluations to improve educator effectiveness.

With many initiatives already in place at schools and districts for the 2016-17 school year, when is the right time to implement an online teacher evaluation tool? Are there best practice options that I could explore to move away from Word/Google Docs and transition to a more streamlined online evaluation system through a phased approach? Are there benefits to gain in doing so?

Is your online teacher evaluation software easy to use? How much training will we need to train our educators and staff? These are two questions that most decision-makers ask us as they are migrating from a paper-based or Google Docs solution to an online evaluation solution. While every sales rep from every vendor will say their software is easy to use, how will you be assured that the solution you pick is indeed intuitive and will require minimal training for your staff?

As you evaluate online platforms for your school or district, here are insights from users on what they were looking to have available via dashboard(s) or reports as they moved from a paper-based/Google docs system to an online evaluation system.

Guest post by Dawn-Marie Ayles. A few years ago, our district began working with TeachPoint as a way to implement our new educator evaluation system through the use of technology. Overwhelmed at first with these two new initiatives, panic set in! The chorus began, “One more new thing to learn?” “What do I have to upload?” “What qualifies as an artifact?” As with anything new, there were those who were confident and those who were confused. How was this obstacle going to be overcome?

Most states have passed legislation that relates to increasing teacher effectiveness and equitable distribution, ensuring the quality of standards and assessments, improving the collection and use of data, and supporting struggling schools. As a result, district leaders need to ensure they are complying with federal and/or state mandates or guidelines.

What are charter schools doing in the area of teacher evaluations? How are charter schools responding to the increased focus on teacher effectiveness? We were curious and conducted a survey on charter school teacher evaluation activity at the National Charter School Conference (NCSC) attended by over 4,500 on June 21-24 in New Orleans, LA.