Education Wednesday

I had a long talk with my old Las Vegas friend yesterday.  She had a horrible year in North Charleston, South Carolina working in a middle school of poor-performing, underachieving students who did not have to be held accountable for their work.  Instead, the teacher was constantly criticized and given no source for improvement.  As a result, the teacher received a poor evaluation.  Since it was her first year in the district, and she received a poor evaluation, her license in the state can be revoked.

As a teacher whose last three jobs were in different schools each job lasting only a year, I have a lot to say about how a teacher is evaluated.  I believe there is a better way too.

First, school culture is probably the most important aspect of the job.  What a school says about itself, and what it presents to the public are not the same thing.  When I began at Shadow Ridge High School last August, the principal announced that I was working in the "best high school in Clark County, bar none."  In his mind that was possibly true.  I took him at his word, however, and failed miserably.  To me, working in the "best school" indicates a level of academic performance and interest on par with a top private school.  With that information I gave assignments and set expectations much higher than my students could handle.  Worse, I actually assigned, and expected to receive, homework.  Again, in the "best" school it should have gone without saying that students could handle that work load.  The trouble is, I was given misinformation.  The misinformation cost me a good evaluation.    Culture:  what  is happening in the school that is not on paper.  I was told that I should give and expect homework, I discovered that I was alone in giving homework.

My recommendation:  let first year teachers (and by first year I mean first year in the school with that principal) work with a less rigid performance rubric.  If I were to return to my old job, there is no way I'd make the same mistakes.  I learned through doing what was expected of me because no one actually told me early enough to do the job well.  Unspoken rule one:  don't fail students even if they do nothing.

Second, make recommendations fair.  If you work for someone who doesn't like you, you may get a poor evaluation even if you're doing the same job as the person in the next room (who received a good evaluation).  When I was told to sit in on the better teachers' classes in my department last year, I expected to see teaching styles much different from my own.  That was not the case:  I saw one excellent teacher (who only received a satisfactory evaluation), two teachers like myself, and one teacher whose class was quite unruly.  I was the only one who received a poor evaluation.

My recommendation:  when administrators find a new teacher lacking, they should be responsible for putting the tools for success in the hands of the teacher.  For example, if the lesson plans are not up to snuff, provide good examples of what is expected.  This may also require some coaching.  Teachers know how to write lesson plans, but what administrators are looking for is not always clear.  Make it clear.  If a teacher has behavior issues, help that teacher.  In Clark County, in order for a student to get sent to the dean's office, I needed to provide documentation of progressive discipline.  When the same student was unruly while my principal was in the room, he hauled her to the dean and she got suspended.  Imagine the power that could have given me if I were allowed to handle the same student in the same way.  Fairness.

Good teachers should not be run out of a school because they failed to understand the unspoken culture of a school.