By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab School District Board of Education recently adopted
a new method of teacher evaluation and the first groups of
teachers had completed their evaluations.
"The evaluations turned out to be a positive experience,"
said Kirk Wright, superintendent. "The new approach, a team
approach, emphasizes coaching as the key element."
He said the new evaluation procedure is about standards
and there can be no standards without assessments matched to
those standards. Teachers cannot improve teaching unless
they know how well students are learning as measured against
meaningful learning outcomes or results.
"Every three years an administrative team will evaluate
the work of each individual, tenured teacher in the district
on the Juab School District Teaching Rubric," said
Wright.
As they perform the evaluations, the evaluating team will
consider the teacher's planning for powerful learning
results, instructional delivery, student results, and a
self-assessment which will be given to the team both orally
and in writing and will present the student learning that
took place as a consequence of the work done.
"The team consists of three members, the teacher's
principal and two others, who meet with the individual
teachers and assess teachers according to the four major
segments," said Wright.
Principals of the teachers being evaluated will continue
to evaluate other aspects of the teacher's performance on an
on-going basis. They will consider classroom management,
professional development, adherence to school and district
policy, and interpersonal relationships.
"Principals will become the primary players in coaching
staff members in their buildings to prepare for the
evaluation," said Wright.
Teachers not meeting the standards will continue to work
with their principal and staff development instructors until
they do meet district standards. As long as a teacher
continues to address and demonstrate the capacity to make
progress in deficient areas, the teacher will not be
dismissed.
One thing the new method is designed to do, in
particular, said Wright, is to enhance the principals' roles
as instructional coaches.
Steve Olsen, middle school principal, said he thought the
new evaluation process was highly effective.
"The process is the best opportunity for a positive
impact on teaching that I have had in my career," said
Olsen.
He said, according to what several teachers had told him,
all of the teachers appreciated the new teacher evaluation
process. When teachers get together with other teachers, the
thought is that teachers like the new method.
"Teachers are starting to believe that it works," he
said.
One of the purposes of the evaluation process, said
Wright, is to provide district-wide focus on assessments and
instructional activities that measure standard detailed in
the College Board's, "What students should know and be able
to do."
The process also helps the instructional staff develop
quality assessments and instructional activities, helps
report data that validates student achievement, provides
reliability and validity to the process, formally recognizes
and validates good teaching, identifies inservice needs, and
provides district-wide consistency in the evaluation
process.
"The team method of teacher evaluation provides help for
staff who are not meeting certification standards, evaluates
teachers for the purpose of keeping quality teachers on
staff and formally recognizes good teaching," said
Wright.
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