Adam Cobb is regional manager with Halogen Software. He focuses on helping K-12 schools, boards and districts optimize teacher and staff evaluation processes and overall talent management practices. He can be reached at acobb@halogensoftware.com.
Teacher and staff evaluations can be a thorny issue. While almost everyone agrees that, in theory, they can be excellent tools for supporting staff development and performance, and for increasing student achievement, evaluations remain problematic.
We all know stories of evaluations that were too subjective or that served to demoralize rather than support and develop, and of processes that are time and paper intensive, providing little real benefit to anyone. As every school district in Illinois wrestles with the technical issues in the Illinois Education Reform Act (SB7), we should not forget that an effective teacher evaluation process should increase teachers’ abilities to affect student achievement.
So how can board members influence and help optimize a district’s performance management or evaluation process to make it more effective?
Here are seven tried and true practices to guide your efforts:
Identify goals for the process. Before beginning any change process, be clear about the goals for the teacher and staff evaluations. Ask questions like: What are we trying to accomplish? What data needs to be gathered? Who needs to be involved? What do we want to change as a result of conducting these evaluations?
District goals should always direct all district efforts. Primarily, an evaluation process is to ensure that the district’s teachers and staff are meeting the high standards set by the board of education and working to improve student achievement. Your district goal may be to improve knowledge, skills or performance in particular areas of the curriculum. But as board members you also may be trying to increase accountability or alignment to board and district goals.
Being clear about goals at the onset will help direct all efforts and help to measure the effectiveness of the evaluation process down the road.
Carefully optimize the process and forms. Encourage those in charge of the actual process to keep things as simple as possible but to adhere to the selected process in every detail.
Forms should use clear, consistent and appropriate rating scales within the proscribed rubric. Boards should receive decision support data wherever needed. Evaluators should have easy access to as much information about staff members, evaluation criteria and support resources as possible so that they can quickly and effectively complete their evaluations.
Teachers and staff should receive high-quality feedback, direction and the development they need to improve and succeed. The easier it is for staff to complete the forms and process, the more likely they’ll participate and gain benefit from that process.
While it can be helpful to look at what other boards and districts are doing, processes and forms should meet the district’s specific needs (as well as the intent of the new statute), use “language” that is familiar to the staff, and address specific goals and requirements.
Provide resources and require training for everyone necessary on how to use the forms and follow the process. This means how to use the evaluation forms, the evaluation criteria, the performance rating scale and what each rating means, and everyone’s role in the process. They should understand what steps the process may include (e.g., walkthroughs, self-reporting, etc.) so that they know what to expect.
Using new language and process will require resources of time and money both for initial and ongoing or refresher training. Everyone involved should know what is expected of them, and when and how they can get help if they need it.
Communicate the benefits of effective performance management. One of the things we often forget to do is tell people what’s in it for them. Effective performance management can provide numerous benefits to the individual and the school board, including: better educator performance; increased ability to identify and address development needs; improved ability to attract top teachers and staff; and, ultimately, improved student achievement.
To engage staff in the performance management process and help them see its value, district leadership must communicate long-term career and student performance benefits on an ongoing basis.
Provide resources of both time and money so that evaluators are trained on performance management best practices. This is perhaps one of the most important items. Managing employee performance is not an easy skill. Most people don’t innately know how to give helpful feedback, how to coach, how to write effective goals, even how to identify appropriate and effective professional development activities.
Those who manage and evaluate the performance of others can also greatly benefit from training in personality types, communication styles, learning styles, etc., to help increase their interpersonal effectiveness. Here again, introductory as well as ongoing/refresher training is important, so those items should be part of the goals and a budget priority.
Due dates and expectations for the process should be clearly communicated. Because the process and requirements are clear and important to superintendents and principals, it’s easy to forget that they’re not always clear to the board. Boards should ask for regular status reports on the implementation of the evaluation plan, including questions like: Who has been trained? How have we communicated our efforts with the staff? What is our plan for conducting the various activities required by the plan? While the board won’t be involved in the details of evaluating teachers, understanding the process will help the board to monitor progress and will build trust if and when the board is expected to make important personnel decisions.
Ask for feedback on how the process went and encourage incremental improvements. Every year, the evaluation process itself also needs to be evaluated. Administrators should convey information to the board that answers the following questions:
• What worked well and what didn’t?
• Where and how could the process be simplified?
• Did everyone involved get the information needed?
• Were enough resources of time and money allotted?
• Has the district met state and/or district requirements?
• Is the evaluation process helping the board achieve its goals?
• Is the process helping to support staff performance and development?
• Are participation rates on target?
By continuously monitoring teacher/staff evaluation processes from the board’s perspective, and then by providing the needed resources of both time and money to implement improvements, everyone can be assured that the plan is being implemented properly and is meeting the board expectations.