<p>Does anyone go to a school or live in a district where parents and/or students have the opportunity to evaluate high school, elementary or middle school teachers? If so, how is this done? Is it a formative or summative evaluation? Does it "count" toward the evaluation of the teacher by administrators? Is there a tool that has been used, and is this available? Has it been validated and tested for reliability? Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Anyone?
Anyone from outside the U.S.A., perhaps?
If not, does anyone work or go to a college where the evaluation of teaching tool is available to anyone online, and could you share that link?</p>
<p>In our district, students grades four and up evaluate teachers but this is NOT evaluative in the sense that it affect their job performance rating. THAT is done by the administration. The student input is for teacher use to get feedback from the students. </p>
<p>Every three years, our special education department asks parents to complete an evaluation survey. Again, the info is not for teacher job performance purposes but rather to know how our programs are viewed and what changes can be made…and what is working.</p>
<p>Just curious…why do you want to know this?</p>
<p>Thank you, thumper1! Is there a tool that is used to evaluate the teachers? Would you be willing to share, by PM if you prefer, the name and location of your district?
Our urban district has a grant to improve teacher effectiveness. I am on a district-wide parent committee to give input into this process. For years, parents have been saying that some sort of a 360 degree review would be helpful, even if it is just done in a formative manner. The administration has also indicated that this input would be helpful. Parents have generally found that most “parent surveys” sent out to evaluate different aspects have been less than helpful; they almost seemed to be designed to elicit certain answers, and we want to come up with something that will really contribute to continual quality improvement.
Parents of special education students also have expressed the desire to have an evaluation tool that would examine how teachers are meeting their students’ particular needs.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is helpful, but just like there’s that website ratemyprofessors, there is one called ratemyteachers.</p>
<p>ratemyteachers and ratemyprofessors both have more COMPLAINTS than compliments. I would be cautious about this…it’s no more comprehensive than sitting at the local pool (or soccer game) and listening to parents.</p>
<p>To answer the OPs questions…teacher evaluation is tied to specific CRITERIA that are defined by the local board of education AND the administration. Unless the folks completing an “evaluation” are intimately familiar with these criteria and also how they are developed and monitored within the school, and parent evaluation will be opinions. Those opinions ARE important to seek, but in my opinion, they should not be evaluative in terms of job performance.</p>
<p>Your school district should be thinking of a way for parents to express their pleasures and concerns to the administration who SHOULD be in charge of this process.</p>
<p>Because our surveys are for teacher input, they are developed by the teachers.</p>
<p>Thank you, thumper1. Yes, mom2college, I have seen this and we are looking to elicit information that would be helpful in a more formative manner.
I agree that the administrators should be in charge of this process. However, parents are being asked for input and we would like to develop something meaningful, but did not see the purpose of reinventing the wheel if this is being done elsewhere with good results.
So far, we have thought of having some formative evaluation questions such as this:
“A very worthwhile project that I worked on in this course was…” (describe)
“The students in this class behaved in a respectful manner” (Strongly agree to strongly disagree"
“I would like to learn more about…” (describe)
etc.
We thought that this might help the teachers know what students’ opinions are, but also might motivate the teachers. For example, if they know that they will be asked about projects, they will have the students DO projects (instead of rote worksheets, etc.)
The teacher union is involved in this grant, too, and we hope to work collaboratively with teachers and administrators on this. But, we are the customers here and our input is important!
I think that it is helpful that most of the parents have jobs where we are evaluated meaningfully. Until now, teachers in our district have not been evaluated meaningfully.
The publications on this website get to the heart of the matter, but interestingly, our parents were holding discussion groups years ago and saying all of these things, way before these were published:
[The</a> New Teacher Project](<a href=“http://www.tntp.org/]The”>http://www.tntp.org/)
Thanks again for your answers.
Anyone else?</p>
<p>Does anyone know of another online forum where I could ask this, or of a scholarly article about this?</p>
<p>You might try the National PTO Organization website:</p>
<p>[Ptotoday.org</a> - Ptotoday Resources and Information.](<a href=“http://www.ptotoday.org%5DPtotoday.org”>http://www.ptotoday.org)</p>
<p>There is a message board on that website to ask questions.</p>
<p>Another idea is to try a teacher forum such as <a href=“http://www.teachers.net%5B/url%5D”>http://www.teachers.net</a> (I think that’s the right name).</p>
<p>
By people who share the same workplace.</p>
<p>I think where the parents are experts is on the impact of the school day upon their child, outside of the classroom. I’m not sure on what basis a parent can answer whether or not behavior was acceptable in a classroom (scale of 0-5) unless they spend an entire week there, 9-3, and see how many transitions are handled throughout the school day, not just drop-off/pick-up moments. </p>
<p>IMO, parents offer helpful expertise on things they are in sole position to witness, for example, “willingness to begin homework,” “frustration during homework,” “anxiety expressed about schoolmates during recess/lunchtimes etc.” (getting at bullying, in other words-- that’s hard, and I’m not satisfied with what I just wrote there either.) </p>
<p>Writing questions in an evaluation to move curriculum in a given direction doesn’t strike me as entirely honest. If you want the teachers to do more projects, you might ask questions about whether the child expressed interest (or not) at home over upcoming projects vs. worksheets. </p>
<p>I think your strongest voice is to express what only you can observe about your individual child in the home or in school-transition environment, rather than try to get parents to rank on what they project it is like inside their child’s school classroom throughout most days.</p>
<p>Things such as, “highlights of the school year, as my child expressed at home, include…” might get answers such as “the zoo field trip” or “the class play.” ETA: You might have the teacher list a dozen highlights and let the parents check off one or add “other.” </p>
<p>My comments apply to elementary grades, where I taught previously.</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree somewhat with paying3tuitions. As a parent and an educator, I hear, see and experience far far far more than the teachers probably realize. It goes way beyond homework and transitions. </p>
<p>I know when my child has been blown off for the second time seeking help on homework, my emails go unanswered, a good portion of the students are bored and resentful that the teacher is repeating material they learned last year, kids are being embarrassed in class or are afraid to put up their hand, or the teacher is seen as one with mood swings. Anyone who talks to their children and classmates on a daily basis garners a huge amount of potentially useful bits of information that could be given to teachers but is never asked of. Children may not be in a position to see trends, articulate well what they experience, or have a large dataset of teacher experiences upon which to draw. Parents on the other hand do. While their information may be second hand, biased and even inaccurate, they know their children and their ability to express their experiences and analyze the context, and they can see a large swath of information across so much data collected in a year. </p>
<p>It would just be so useful to everyone if teachers actually expressed interest in hearing that feedback and learning from it rather than dismissing it as meaningless or useless. Even if such feedback is objectively incorrect, or there is an explanation for it, the fact that a chunk of the class has a shared interpretation of something that is not positive is useful information to have.</p>
<p>I agree with both Paying3tuitions and Starbright. I, also, am a teacher and a parent. I think that the danger lies in the notion that the parents should be evaluating curriculum trends, classroom methods, etc. based on whether they like the “projects” vs. the worksheet, etc. I do think that parent are the experts on their child but they are not, generally, experts on education.</p>
<p>At the risk of embarrassing myself, I will relay a story. When my oldest child was in fourth grade she had a first year teacher. At one point in the year, the teacher asked the children to start collecting bread bag tags. The idea was to collect one million of them by the end of the year. How stupid, I thought! Even if they did collect one million tags, they couldn’t fit them in the room. A waste of time and effort, in my opinion. So, at parent conferences, I asked the teacher about the purpose of this exercise. She wanted the children to understand the enormity that one million represents. Once they had collected as many as they could, they would measure the space that they took up and figure out how much space one million of them would require.</p>
<p>Point being, parents don’t always know best about what goes on in the classroom. Yes, there are bad teachers, lazy teachers, unimaginative teachers and even mean teachers. As a teacher myself, I am most definitely interested in the feedback that is available from the parents of my students but I don’t want them evaluating the legitimacy of my lessons. When they get their Masters in an education related field, then we’ll talk.</p>
<p>As a parent, I would be happy to provide feedback about my experience or my child’s experience with a teacher.<br>
The problem in our former school was that nothing changed. Teachers were required to use an online gradebook system, post homework online and respond to e-mails within 24 hours. Compliance with the above expectations is easily tracked and doesn’t require any educational expertise to understand whether it’s happening or not. If it doesn’t matter, then the same teachers will continue the same behavior.</p>
<p>I agree with you EPTR. I think there is an important distinction to be made between pedagogy and curriculum on one hand, and process and interaction on the other. I think the latter is one that everyone has an opinion on and should be providing it. And often its one of the most important elements of a classroom.</p>
<p>Just like when it comes to patients opinions on doctors. I can and do have an valid opinion about how the doctor treats me despite not having a medical degree. I’m less able to judge his medical expertise of course (unless some gross oversight or common sense incompetence shows itself). </p>
<p>This is not unlike how I deal with feedback from our students. In my case, they actually evaluate me anonymously in a way that impacts my career but also provides me with invaluable feedback. It’s just more realistic and accepted at the college level. My abilities as a teacher have grown primarily through feedback of this kind. It just seems such a shame teachers at other levels can’t be privvy to such feedback themselves. How can any of us improve without constant feedback from somewhere? </p>
<p>But the kind of feedback I find most useful is on process and interaction: whether they report that I held their motivation or made them feel enthusiastic about the material, whether I am clear in my explanations, showed them respect, was approachable, did I demonstrate consistency, fostered a comfortable classroom environment, made my grading standards clear and provide timely feedback on assignments. My students are far far far better judges of these criteria than anyone else (ha, if you asked me, I’d of course say I’m spiffy on all these dimensions!). </p>
<p>When their feedback is not so useful is when they feel they can and should determine the curriculum (where I - hopefully!- have far greater expertise than my students) or the larger pedagogical approach I employ. Though sometimes I learn from them on this as well, especially if they tell me the material is redundant or they don’t yet see why they need to know it or that it contradicts something else they have learned; or when I try a new pedagogical approach to a topic and they can tell me if they felt it was useful or not to either their motivation or their ability to grasp the concepts.</p>
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<p>I agree! Believe me, teachers get frustrated, too, when some things don’t change, especially when many of us are working very hard to provide the best possible experience for our students. It is very disheartening to give feedback or make observations and have them ignored.</p>
<p><<compliance with=“” the=“” above=“” expectations=“” is=“” easily=“” tracked=“” and=“” doesn’t=“” require=“” any=“” educational=“” expertise=“” to=“” understand=“” whether=“” it’s=“” happening=“” or=“” not.=“”>></compliance></p>
<p>I hope my comment about educational expertise didn’t come off as condescending. My point isn’t that it takes educational experts to track data but, rather, that it takes a trained educator to design and implement curriculum, assess student performance, etc.</p>
<p><<just like=“” when=“” it=“” comes=“” to=“” patients=“” opinions=“” on=“” doctors.=“” i=“” can=“” and=“” do=“” have=“” an=“” valid=“” opinion=“” about=“” how=“” the=“” doctor=“” treats=“” me=“” despite=“” not=“” having=“” a=“” medical=“” degree.=“” i’m=“” less=“” able=“” judge=“” his=“” expertise=“” of=“” course=“” (unless=“” some=“” gross=“” oversight=“” or=“” common=“” sense=“” incompetence=“” shows=“” itself).=“”>></just></p>
<p>Exactly! Parent feedback is invaluable in understanding the child’s response to your teaching. This feedback can round out the picture of what goes on in the classroom.</p>
<p>I always wished I could poll the parent community on this for their feedback, "Do you support having 15 instructional days per year learning about holiday customs, having parties and making craft-gifts (Halloween, Christmas, Hannukah, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter) or would you prefer these days be used for core curriculum subjects ?</p>
<p>^^^
That really resonates with me! As an elementary art teacher people often expect me to do holiday related lessons and such. I generally don’t want to take the time out of my curriculum! Unless I can tie it in with meaningful curricula in my area. I did a lesson last year based on the artist Jim Dine. He was an American artist of the Pop Art era who did many heart related drawings and paintings. My third grade students learned about his life and art and then created a heart in the style of Jim Dine. We did it around Valentine’s Day. That, to me, is an effective way to tie in the holidays. Otherwise, a lot of that stuff is just busy work. I agree with you.</p>
<p>Has you school ever done a needs assessment survey? The schools that I have worked in do them every year and it gives the parents a forum to express their ideas, thoughts and experiences with their child’s schooling. Maybe, if they do have one, you can express your frustration around these issues.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your valuable contributions to this discussion!
Out of curiosity, is anyone from an urban district?</p>
<p>Deja, do you know how to get the chatboard on the first link you provided? I was able to post on the second - thank you!
Does anyone know of a discussion forum such as this for parents whose students attend urban public schools? (I think I will post a thread asking how many parents on this forum have students attending urban public schools - but based on posts it does not seem like many.)</p>