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Teacher Evaluation in Rural
Schools
Laura Goe, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, ETS, and Principal Investigator for the
National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
Institute for Educational Leadership
Washington, DC  September 17, 2012
Laura Goe, Ph.D.
• Former teacher in rural & urban schools
 Special education (7th & 8th grade, Tunica, MS)
 Language arts (7th grade, Memphis, TN)
• Graduate of UC Berkeley’s Policy, Organizations,
Measurement & Evaluation doctoral program
• Principal Investigator for the National
Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
• Research Scientist in the Performance Research
Group at ETS
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The goal of teacher evaluation
The ultimate goal of all
teacher evaluation should be…
TO IMPROVE
TEACHING AND
LEARNING
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Multiple Standards-based Measures of
Teacher Effectiveness
• Affords many benefits to a comprehensive
evaluation system
 Ability to triangulate results increases confidence in
evaluation outcomes
 More complete picture of teacher strengths and
weaknesses
 Each type of measure provides a different type of
evidence
• All work together to better inform professional
development decisions
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More than test scores…
• How successful are teachers at working
with students in need of a lot of support?
 Evaluate teachers’ efforts to address students’
physical, social, and emotional needs
 Evaluate efforts at making contacts with and
establishing relationships with parents
 Value and acknowledge teachers’ efforts to
encourage, inspire and engage students
 Some things we value can’t be measured with
a test score
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Results inform professional growth
opportunities
• Are evaluation results discussed with individual
teachers?
• Do teachers collaborate with instructional
managers to develop a plan for improvement
and/or professional growth?
 All teachers (even high-scoring ones) have areas
where they can grow and learn
• Are effective teachers provided with opportunities
to develop their leadership potential?
• Are struggling teachers provided with coaches
and given opportunities to observe/be observed?
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A well-aligned evaluation system
(Goe et al., 2012)
• In a well-aligned system, evidence of practice as it
relates to high-quality teaching standards will:
 Form the basis for a professional growth plan
 Give structure and consistency to coaching and mentoring by
providing the basis for shared expectations and a common
language, and possibly suggesting a direction for
development
 Provide a diagnostic approach to understanding inadequate
student learning growth (i.e., determining which standards are
not being met and considering how they might relate to
student outcomes)
 Offer a set of criteria to help principals, consulting teachers,
mentors, and others identify areas in which teachers are
successful and areas for improvement
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High-quality professional growth
opportunities
• The ultimate goal of teacher evaluation should be
to improve teaching & learning
 Individual coaching/feedback on instruction
- Trained coaches, not just “good teachers”
 Observing “master teachers”
- Provide opportunities to discuss specific practices
- May be especially helpful at beginning of year when
master teachers are creating a “learning
environment”
 Group professional development
- Opportunity to grow together as a cohort
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Effectiveness can be improved!
• Most teachers are doing the best they can
 Help them do better with feedback, support, coaching, and a
focus on classroom environment and relationships with
students
• Teachers who are discouraged may need to see
successful teachers with similar kids
• Teachers who are consistently effective should be
encouraged to model and teach specific practices to
less effective teachers
• Classroom learning environment is key: helping
teachers create and maintain a better classroom
learning environment improves student oucomes
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Evaluating teachers: Rural challenges
• Teachers who are seen as “outsiders” in the
community may have problems engaging wary
student in learning and in building positive
relationships with parents
 Help teacher get connected to community by
assigning a community mentor to help teacher
integrate into local culture
 Use place-based learning strategies to engage
students and teachers in discovering local history and
culture while addressing community needs
 Provide professional development on “cultural
relativism”
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Evaluating teachers: Rural challenges
• Lack of family support for schooling may hinder
students’ ability to learn and their interest in school
success
 May impact teacher evaluation results
 Not just a rural challenge but common to high-poverty areas
and areas where many parents were not successful in school
• Evaluate teachers on their willingness and ability to
engage parents and community
 Celebrating student success
 Sharing student work throughout the year in community
exhibits, performances, etc.
 Asking parents to assist in and contribute their talents and
skills to events and to classroom projects
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Evaluating teachers: Rural challenges
• Research on learning environment, relationships in
classroom and parent/teacher relationships shows
link to student achievement
 Correlates to student learning growth:
- High ratings on learning environment using Framework for
Teaching (Kane et al., 2010)
- Positive student/teacher relationships (Howes et al., 2008)
- Parent engagement efforts by teachers and schools
(Redding et al., 2004)
- Responsive Classroom strategies (Rimm-Kaufman et al.,
2012)
– RC builds teacher capacity to establish a learning environment that
serves to promote social skills such as cooperation, assertion,
responsibility, empathy, and self-control
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Assessing student growth for teacher
evaluation: Rural challenges
• Highly mobile student populations
 Short-cycle assessments will be needed for students who are
highly mobile (less focus on once-a-year standardized tests)
 Assess students as soon as possible upon enrollment
• High student absenteeism
 Follow state guidelines for how many total days, consecutive
days, etc. a student must be on a teacher’s role to “count” for
that teachers’ score on contribution to student learning
• Teachers with multiple preps/grades
 Develop a plan with individual teachers to focus on specific
subjects/grades for evaluation purposes
- Areas where teacher wants to concentrate efforts at maximizing student
growth
- Priority areas for school and district
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Rural evaluation: Regional focus
• Invest in technology and infrastructure that
will enable teachers to connect with each
other and with internet-based resources
• Form regional consortiums to share
resources including personnel
 Rural schools may not be able to afford their
own data analysts, curriculum specialists, etc.
 Need a model of sharing personnel across
regions
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Final thoughts
• The limitations:
 There are no perfect measures
 There are no perfect models
 Changing the culture of evaluation is hard work
• The opportunities:
 Evidence can be used to trigger support for struggling
teachers and acknowledge effective ones
 Multiple sources of evidence can provide powerful
information to improve teaching and learning
 Evidence is more valid than “judgment” and provides
better information for teachers to improve practice
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References
Goe, L., Biggers, K., & Croft, A. (2012). Linking teacher evaluation to professional development:
Focusing on improving teaching and learning. Washington, DC: National Comprehensive Center for
Teacher Quality.
http://www.tqsource.org/publications/LinkingTeacherEval.pdf
Howes, C., Burchinal, M., Pianta, R., Bryant, D., Early, D., Clifford, R., et al. (2008). Ready to learn?
Children's pre-academic achievement in pre-kindergarten programs. Early Childhood Research
Quarterly, 23(1), 27-50.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=EJ783140
Kane, T. J., Taylor, E. S., Tyler, J. H., & Wooten, A. L. (2010). Identifying effective classroom practices using
student achievement data. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w15803
Redding, S., Langdon, J., Meyer, J., & Sheley, P. (2004). The effects of comprehensive parent
engagement on student learning outcomes. Paper presented at the American Educational
Research Association
http://www.adi.org/solidfoundation/resources/Harvard.pdf
Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., Larsen, R., Alison Baroody, Curby, T., Merritt, E., Abry, T., . . . Ko, M. (2012).
Efficacy of the Responsive Classroom Approach: Results from a three year, longitudinal
randomized control trial. Paper presented at the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness,
Washington, DC.
https://www.sree.org/conferences/2012f/program/downloads/abstracts/683.pdf
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Questions?
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Laura Goe, Ph.D.
609-619-1648
[email protected]
www.lauragoe.com
https://twitter.com/GoeLaura
National Comprehensive Center for
Teacher Quality
1000 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
www.tqsource.org
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