Growing Great Teachers: The Best Reason for Teacher Evaluation

By Lisa “Kersch” Kerscher, Brightway Learning's Education Director

What is the purpose of evaluating teachers? Most would agree that at its base level, it’s about making sure teachers are performing their minimum job requirements. But at the highest level, it’s about helping teachers self-reflect on their practices and supporting them to grow their best professional selves.

In many cases, reaching the high ground has obstacles due to the nature of how evaluations are done: top-down, with little or late input from the teachers themselves. At statewide teacher conferences, I’ve heard teachers recount how they only see their evaluator once a year for a one-hour formal observation session. “And that’s what I get judged on,” one teacher lamented. “I have to be perfect in that one random hour out of the whole school year! How can I show all the great stuff I do during the rest of the year?”

So, it always gives me a boost to hear and see how this “old mindset” is shifting to truly polish best practices in our schools. It’s especially rewarding for me that our own software system - ClassBright Evaluate - is helping to lead the way.

Recently during fall in-services, I was training school staff on ClassBright Collaborate. A couple of veteran teachers - new to this district - were clearly apprehensive about the evaluation process. It was refreshing to me - and comforting to them - to hear others share their experiences from last school year.

“I found that [the evaluation process with ClassBright] actually validated my practice,” one teacher said, while her colleague nodded next to her in agreement. From there, a great and open discussion unfolded among the teachers and administrators. Veterans in the district talked about how ClassBright Collaborate allows them to give input in a variety of ways throughout the school year:

• Adding evidence and examples of their practices to their own portfolios, shared with their evaluator; this is especially important for categories in the rubric where classroom observations aren’t applicable

• Immediate transparency of observations made by their evaluator, often triggering in-time discussions together

• Active reflection on and interacting with the evaluation rubric, sometimes leading to deeper discussions about best practices

“I feel like the evaluation process is something we do together,” another teacher noted, “rather than having something done to me. It actually helps me think more about what I’m doing.”

Every true professional, regardless of their career field, desires and needs the time and commitment in order to get better at what they do. In the education world, why not optimize the evaluation requirement to grow great teachers together? I’m proud to be part of the movement to help educational professionals do just that!

Learn more about ClassBright Collaborate>>>

ClassBright: Simple and Effective Teacher Evaluation

Stories from an Alaska Superintendent - PART II

By Scott MacManus, Superintendent of Alaska Gateway School District

In 2013, the State of Alaska mandated that all school districts revamp their teacher evaluation systems to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Like many other - particularly rural - school districts, AGSD initially struggled with the requirements and the limited options available.  

We considered simply adopting one of the national models that the State had pre-approved. But after reviewing several options, we knew none were realistic for us.They were large systems that required a great deal of training and support, as well as a considerable software investment. And our most important teaching practice goals were not necessarily addressed.

So we considered building our own “hybrid” model; another option offered by the State. Even though we were initially daunted by the time, cost, and horsepower needed to devote to such a project, we ultimately concluded that it was in our best interest to develop our own model.  

Brightways Learning immediately came to mind as a good partner in this venture. From previous and ongoing experience with them for our curriculum management needs, we knew they would provide the innovative programming we needed for such a system.  

The goal was to develop an easy-to-use, online evaluation instrument that complied with the new laws, and would fairly and objectively evaluate teachers in a way that supported improvement and excellence in teaching and learning. It needed to share expectations and observations immediately and transparently, while facilitating collaboration and meaningful discussions.

The Brightways team latched on to our idea immediately, listened carefully to our needs, and delivered an exceptional online product called ClassBright Evaluate. This flexible system not only meets our district's specifications, but can easily be adapted to any other school district’s needs.

ClassBright Evaluate makes the process of performance evaluations much more collaborative and provides real, clear transparency to the teachers. There are no secrets. It's very data-driven, so it helps administrators make data-based performance decisions.

But most importantly, the ClassBright Evaluate system is creating a valuable dialogue between the evaluators and the teachers that is more productive and conducive to long-term teacher support. Ultimately, this will help our teachers become better educators to our students.

Now in the middle of our first year in full implementation of ClassBright Evaluate, we are actively meeting our evaluation goals: 

• to improve professional communication and growth between teachers and principals;

• to build and support best practices in teaching and learning;

• to receive information we can use to support our teachers; and

• to be manageable and efficient for our busy administrators.

In fact, we are so confident in ClassBright Evaluate, we plan next year to expand our use beyond the primary teaching staff to include all our supporting, certified, and classified staff within this single, easy-to-manage system.