The state departments are trying to create a fair, credible and rigorous evaluation tool to differentiate the performance of teachers. The belief is that students will be more engaged in learning if we recognize the strengths of great teachers and provide professional development for teachers in need of assistance. Without fully understanding the implications of the new evaluation tool, I cannot be so bold as to say that it will or won’t be effective. However, through my thirteen years of teaching experience and having piloted the new evaluation tool in PA, I will provide some insights into what I have learned.

As described in the third article in this series, (Teacher Evaluation Part 3: What Makes Evaluation Systems Ineffective?), the call for a new evaluation tool stemmed from the need to address the disconnect between teacher evaluations and student achievement. Teachers were receiving satisfactory evaluations as students scored less than satisfactory on state standardized tests. The goal is to bridge the gap by creating an evaluation system to better understand the effectiveness of teachers.

Over the past three years, 36 states and the District of Columbia have introduced new systems for evaluating teachers, according to the National Center on Teacher Quality. Part of the reason for this is the availability of federal grant money from the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program. Prior to this, however, teachers across the nation were evaluated using basic performance reviews, which only served to label the majority of educators as “satisfactory.” As a result, new evaluation systems have been developed and implemented in individual states with the goal of using multiple measures to thoroughly evaluate teachers’ performance in the classroom.

Many articles, publications and white papers have presented the need to create better evaluation systems to identify each educator’s professional development needs and support his or her growth. There has been substantial evidence that teacher evaluation systems fail to identify teachers’ needs or develop more effective teachers.

Over the years, there has been a disconnect between student achievement and teacher evaluation data. Understandably, something needs to be addressed when a large percentage of teachers are receiving high yearly evaluations, while students earn low scores on their standardized assessments. Education stakeholders agree that teachers are critical to a student’s success and believe that there hasn’t been enough data collected to accurately evaluate teachers.

The general purpose of a teacher evaluation system is to ensure that teachers are meeting the requirements of being effective educators by providing feedback on their instructional practices. The evaluation is comprised of data collected by an evaluator (often an administrator) in regards to the teacher’s preparation, classroom management, teaching methods/strategies, instructional materials, and interactions with students. In theory, administration will visit the classroom several times a marking period informally, and at least twice a year formally. At the conclusion of the second formal observation, the administrator would then review their findings with the teacher using an evaluation rubric.

It was a cold, damp, windy day in Southeast Pennsylvania last month as I sat with my notebook, iPad, iPhone and TV providing me information about the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. On my iPad, I was tracking the storm using the Weather Channel app. On my iPhone, I was checking social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Path for the latest updates from friends. On the television, I was watching my local ABC affiliate present the latest news about the storm. On my notebook, I filled in the gaps between reading articles, checking social media and, as crazy as it sounds, generating and reviewing homework assignments from my students.

Competency-based education ensures that all students have the opportunity to learn at their own pace. It allows the flexibility for students who have mastered the material to move ahead of the rest of the class, and build upon their acquired skills. This is especially critical in an inclusion classroom, where students of all ability levels are required to learn the same curriculum. But having students at various levels in the same class presents a whole set of different challenges for the teacher.

The old saying "Do as I say, not as I do" no longer holds any weight when it comes from a teacher's mouth. Students are less likely to obey verbal directives if they see that the teacher doesn't even follow his or her own rules. What you need to do is model the positive behavior that you want your students to demonstrate. Following this same premise, if a teacher wants their students to learn how to be accountable for their own actions, the teacher must also hold themselves accountable. This means that follow through becomes extremely important in the classroom, even with the most routine activities. Holding students accountable each and every time they miss an assignment or homework, even the simplest of tasks, is critical for ensuring that accountability is reinforced.

The ultimate goal is for all students to build the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in a global economy. This is often referred to as being “college and career ready.” But what exactly are the skills one needs to define themselves as being career ready? According to the Career Readiness Partner Council, the recently released report entitled Building Blocks of Change: What it Means to be Career Ready, defines just that.