It seems to me that good teachers are hard to come by these days, but why is that? Most would agree that a good teacher know how to engage students, are knowledgeable in their subject, and understand the best ways for students to learn. In a very broad sense, all great teachers possess those traits. So, why are so many schools throughout the United States on probation while such a high rate of their teachers are rated as “excellent”? That’s what Excellence in Teaching wants to know.
Excellence in Teaching is a pilot program that was started in 2008 to improve schools throughout the U.S. and has been successful in the schools that they have been tested at for the past couple years. It targets the main reasons for faulty teacher evaluations and aims to produce feedback to teachers that will improve their methods and improve education on a whole.
A typical teacher evaluation comes from the principal checking off a generalized list of what the teachers are or are not doing well in the classroom. There are a few problems with this very vague evaluation. In order to evaluate a teacher, a principal will sit in a class and determine the teacher’s ability in that sitting. Usually, children are on their best behavior and teachers are more attentive during those times and know what to do to gain the best scores, so obviously the results will be slightly skewed and vague at best.
Excellence in Teaching wants to correct this by doing away with the checklist and replace it with conversation. So, rather than just rating the teacher, they want to discover how the students are learning from a teacher’s methods and what can be changed to increase students’ understanding. It’s similar to getting an essay back with feedback on your work and how you can improve it written throughout the paper rather than getting it back with a simple grade stamped at the top and you’re left to question why you got that grade.
I think it is great that so many schools have started to evaluate teachers through this program. If every school in the United States adopted Excellence in Teaching’s methods of evaluation, then the quality of learning would definitely go up and the number of successful students would rise along with it.
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It seems to me that things might head in the right direction if this concept is adopted in every school. This new style of evaluation seems to be a better and more thorough system that will help improve our understanding of how to improve teaching in America. I agree that this new system can significantly help; however, I think that it is incomplete. Evaluating teachers this way does provide more information but other data is needed. If this were a science experiment, perhaps statistics of grades of the students for several years, or grades for the students assessed after the respective level of study can be involved to also evaluate the teacher. I do agree that this concept will provide improvement in helping teachers, but I see that more can be added.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading my classmates’ blogs, I found one that caught my attention. The blog is by Shannon, and it talks about the better approach to teaching and learning in the United States. What first caught my attention is the way that she defines good teachers. She says, “A good teacher knows how to engage students, are knowledgeable in their subjects, and understand the best way for students to learn.” I concur with Shannon’s definition of a good teacher because I know that every semester when I’m choosing my classes I look for those traits in my future professors. Shannon in her blog talks about a program that is called the Excellence in Teaching. This program was made to improve schools throughout the U.S. This program evaluates teachers’ learning methods and how efficiently are these method. Shannon concludes that if the United States adopted excellent in teaching’s methods of evaluation, The United States would have more successful students. I really like this notion because it’s true that behind an excellent student there is a great professor.
ReplyDeleteIt would be wonderful if every school in the US adopted this type of interface evaluation method. The US, which boasts one of the highest GNPs in the world, and has been the world's leading power for more than a century, has something in the neighborhood of a 65% High School Graduation rate. Japan has a 99% Graduation rate, and many European countries come close. It's no wonder some of the best inventions are not from America. Even those with High School Diplomas often read at a 10th grade level and don't know who the president is. Sad, sad sad!If we could improve the education system and make it one that truly works, the United States would be an even better place to live.
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