Ellen Behrstock-Sherratt - Everyone at the Table: Engaging Teachers in Evaluation Reform

CONTENTS

More Praise for Everyone at the Table

Everyone at the Table places teacher leaders squarely where they need to beat the table in shaping policies and making decisions that impact classroom practice and student learning.

Katherine Bassett, director, National Network of State Teachers of the Year

Meaningful change in our schools will only take hold when educators are included in the design and implementation of policies that affect their classrooms and careers. By highlighting the importance of giving teachers a seat at the policy table, Everyone at the Table moves the profession in a positive direction.

Syndey Morris, cofounder, co-CEO, Educators4Excellence

Mobilizing educators to come together in an effort to redesign schooling, rethink the profession, and professionalize their craft can play a vital role in educational improvement. In Everyone at the Table: Engaging Teachers in Evaluation Reform , the authors offer useful guidance for engaging teachers in conversations about teacher evaluation. They sketch a road map for policymaking that promises to draw upon the wisdom and address the concerns of educators and educational policy leaders alike. This is an endeavor that we can all support.

Frederick M. Hess, PhD, director, Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

This book makes clear why its critical to engage teachers in designing and implementing teacher support and evaluation systems. And its chock-full of concrete ideas, tools, and examples for making those conversations authentic and meaningful.

Lynn Olson, advisor to the director of College-Ready Education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

ABOUT THE SPONSORS

Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, DC, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in education, health, and workforce productivity. AIRs Education program includes work in all fifty states and internationally and involves more than five hundred staff working to improve the conditions of teaching and learning from early childhood through college and careers, with a special focus on the most underserved and vulnerable populations. For more information, visit www.air.org .

Public Agenda partners with citizens and leaders to help them better navigate complex and divisive issues. Through nonpartisan stakeholder opinion research and public engagement, Public Agenda provides the insights, tools, and support that people need to build common ground and arrive at solutions that work for them. Public Agenda works in K12 education, higher education, the federal budget, health care, and other critical issues. A national, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, Public Agenda was founded in 1975 by the social scientist and public opinion expert Dan Yankelovich and former secretary of state Cyrus Vance, and is based in New York City. For more information, visit www.publicagenda.org .

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Cover design: Michael Cook

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Behrstock-Sherratt, Ellen.

Everyone at the table : engaging teachers in evaluation reform / Ellen Behrstock-Sherratt, Allison Rizzolo with Sabrina Laine and Will Friedman.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-52634-7 (pbk.); ISBN 978-1-118-54013-8 (ebk.);

ISBN 978-1-118-54015-2 (ebk.); ISBN 978-1-118-54022-0 (ebk.)

1. TeachersRating ofUnited States. 2. TeachingUnited StatesEvaluation. I. Title.

LB2838.B47 2013

371.14'4dc23

2013006257

PREFACE

S uperintendent Amelia Baker wakes up excited and nervous. Today she will share the new teacher evaluation system with the five hundredplus teachers in Merryville School District. Superintendent Baker worked for two years on the system, in coordination with other district leaders and several content experts. They planned carefully, developed research-tested tools, and deliberated endlessly among themselves on the definition of effective teaching and the appropriate weights of different evaluation measures. Today, its finally time to present to teachers the new, carefully constructed approach to teacher evaluation. The unionindeed, all relevant partieshave come around to seeing the benefits of a more rigorous teacher evaluation system. So what could go wrong?

Sitting down for her morning coffee, Baker scans the days news: Dunrock School District Returns to the Drawing Board on Teacher Evaluation System. But how could this be? Baker wonders. She had discussed their evaluation reforms with the superintendent of nearby Dunrock, and they had found so many similarities in their approaches. Not to mention that Dunrocks superintendent was well known for her thoughtfulness and positive reputation.