My blog is KellyRainey.blogspot.com

As the most significant resource in schools, teachers are critical to raise education standards. Improving the efficiency and equity of schooling depends, in large measure, on ensuring that teachers are highly skilled, well resourced, and motivated to perform at their best. “Raising teaching performance is perhaps the policy direction most likely to lead to substantial gains in student learning” (OECD, 2005). In turn, the effective monitoring and evaluation of teaching is central to the continuous improvement of the effectiveness of teaching in a school. It is essential to know the strengths of teachers and those aspects of their practice which could be further developed. From this perspective, the institution of teacher evaluation is a vital step in the drive to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning and raise educational standards. I hope to learn about meaningful, effective evaluations implemented with both students and  on teachers.

In my opinion, meaningful teacher evaluation involves an accurate appraisal of the effectiveness of teaching, its strengths and areas for development, followed by feedback, coaching, support and opportunities for professional development. It is also essential to celebrate, recognize and reward the work of teachers. “Research results reveal that the great majority of teachers report that the appraisal and feedback they receive is beneficial, fair and helpful for their development as teachers” (OECD, 2009b).

In program evaluation, the importance of looking for side effects, especially negative ones, has to be considered against the need to put a major effort into assessing progress toward intended outcomes. When program evaluators work cooperatively with developers in making program goals explicit, both the program and the evaluation seem to benefit.

References

OECD (2005), Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers, OECD,

Paris

OECD (2009b), Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from

TALIS, OECD, Paris.