1. Integrating Theory into Practice
The Role of Supervision and Evaluation in Support of Teaching Excellence
Integrating Theory into Practice

2. Principal Leadership Quality Standard
Leading a Learning Community
(4) A principal nurtures and sustains a school culture that supports evidence-informed teaching and learning.
Providing Instructional Leadership
(6) A principal ensures that every student has access to quality teaching and optimum learning experiences.

3. School Act Section 20: A principal of a school must:
(a) provide instructional leadership in the school;
(b) ensure that the instruction provided by the teachers employed in the school is consistent with the courses of study…;
(d) ensure that students in the school have the opportunity to meet the standards of education set by the Minister;
(i) evaluate the teachers employed in the school

4. What’s the Current State of Teacher Supervision and Evaluation?
AB ED Policy 2.1.5: Teacher Growth Supervision and Evaluation
(b) evaluation means…reasoned professional judgment by a principal in determining whether one or more aspects of the teaching…exceeds, meets or does not meet the teaching quality standard;
(h) supervision means the on-going process…under section 20 of the School Act….
Theory: Teacher evaluation systems are burdensome, not helpful for teachers who are looking to improve their practice and do not assist administrators in making difficult decisions regarding teacher performance.
Theory: Many evaluation systems rely heavily on the documentation of a small number of observable behaviors.
1940 – 1950s teacher traits
1960 – 1970s clinical supervision (teacher effectiveness research)
1980 – 1990s Madeline Hunter behavioristic view
Practice: A common language that describes good teaching that everyone can agree on is elusive.
Practice: Rating Scales: There is little agreement on what constitutes a level 3, medium or satisfactory performance.
Practice: We don’t have benchmarks to evaluate performance against rubrics.

5. Why Supervise/Evaluate Teachers?
Two principal purposes:
Quality assurance (Summative Evaluation)
To fulfill the quality-assurance aspect of evaluation, evaluation of performance must be an ongoing process; principals make consequential decisions.
Professional development (Formative Evaluation)
Evaluation systems designed to support teacher growth and development through an emphasis on formative evaluation techniques are reported to produce higher levels of satisfaction and more thoughtful and reflective practice while still being able to satisfy accountability demands.
Critical Questions:
What do we believe good teaching looks like?
What are the processes and procedures that will best fit what we want our supervision and evaluation system to accomplish?

6. Supervision Practices Within Evaluation Systems
First trend: there is a benefit to being observed and then discussing and reflecting in some depth on what happened and why.
Second trend: there is a move toward giving teachers options within supervision and evaluation systems.

7. The Challenge The utility issue: (utility = time and energy)
To address the utility issue jurisdictions need to focus on:
Those practices that are realistic for the jurisdiction in terms of teacher and administrator time demands.
The availability of resources to support the training necessary to make evaluation systems function effectively.
The level of commitment from administration, the board of education, and the teachers union.

8. The Reward
The power of effective evaluation systems lies in their ability to focus attention on the importance of teaching and learning for students and teachers; to provide the means and the incentive for quality assurance, based on legitimate teaching standards; and to serve as the catalyst for encouraging and supporting professional learning through focused, collaborative activities.

9. Effective Evaluation Systems What/Why/How/How
An effective evaluation system must contain three essential elements:
A coherent definition of the “what” of teaching, including decisions concerning the standard for acceptable performance (How good is good enough?)
Techniques and procedures for assessing all aspects of teaching; the “how”.
Trained evaluators who can make consistent judgments about performance, based on evidence of the teaching.

10. The What
Central to the notion of quality assurance in teaching is a clear and coherent definition of exemplary practice.
Any standards of performance must be clear and unambiguous.
Ambiguous teaching standards are written in such that they cannot be evaluated reliably. “The teacher is committed to students and their learning.” How can teachers validly demonstrate such a commitment? What evidence does a principal look for to evaluate the standard?

11. The How
To ensure a valid evaluation system, when jurisdictions identify certain criteria (indicator) as contributing to good practice, they should ensure that teachers will be able to demonstrate the criteria (indicator).

12. Trained Evaluators
Evaluators must be adequately trained so their judgments are accurate, consistent, and based on evidence; it must not matter who is conducting the evaluation; the result should be the same regardless of the identity of the evaluator.
Consistency of judgment is an essential guarantee of the reliability of the evaluation system.
Teachers must have the benefit of evaluators who can make consistent judgments; a teacher’s performance appraisal should not depend on the identity of the evaluator.

13. Training Program for Evaluators
Important Dimensions:
First, evaluators must be able to recognize examples of the evaluative criteria (indicators) in action.
Second, evaluators must interpret the evidence for some aspect of teaching against the evaluative criteria: correct interpretation is an important aspect of professional judgment about teaching.
Last, the evaluator must make a judgment about the teacher’s performance, linking the interpretations to the descriptions of levels of performance.
Dialogue Topics in an Evaluator Training Program:
The evaluative criteria and the ways in which they may be manifested in different settings.
The dangers of personal bias in observing and analyzing teaching.
The nature of evidence and how it is distinguished from personal opinion.
Evaluation of teacher performance using videotapes of lessons and other evidence, such as instructional artifacts, lesson plans, and parent communication against the evaluative criteria, with an emphasis on consistency of judgment from one assessor to another.
The use of jurisdiction-approved forms and instruments.
The structure of the evaluation system, with an emphasis on the particular responsibilities for evaluators.

14. Components of Professional Practice Charlotte Danielson

15. Levels of Performance
A set of teaching skills to define teaching is incomplete unless it includes a description of differing levels of performance. What specific events in a classroom would cause a teacher’s performance on, for example, “managing classroom procedures” to be judged as “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory”?
Both teachers and administrators find the descriptions of levels of performance helpful because the descriptions focus on teaching practice and note what changes would have to be made to quality for the next level.

16. Levels of Performance

17. Levels of Performance

18. Evidence
Classroom Observation:
Is the best, and the only, setting in which to witness essential aspects of teaching.
Planning:
The challenge for an evaluation system is to determine how to ask teachers to document the skill of planning.
Teacher Artifacts:
Artifacts combined with classroom observations, enable an evaluator to witness a teacher’s plans coming to life for students, and how the teacher has adapted the assignments to the needs of the individual or group.

19. Reflection on Practice
Few activities are more powerful for professional learning than reflection on practice. Reflection requires asking questions:
Were those reasonable learning expectations for my students?
Would different groupings have worked better?
How do I know the students have really learned this concept?
How does this activity deepen student understanding of the concept?
What do these student work samples tell me about their level of understanding?
Evaluation systems should include provisions for professional conversation – among teachers and between teachers and administrators.
When educators discuss the evaluative criteria, when they examine evidence of teaching and determine, together, the level of performance represented, they are engaging in valuable professional dialogue and creating a common understanding of what good teaching looks like.
Teachers can examine their teaching against descriptions and determine their relative strengths and weaknesses.

20. Differentiation
Jurisdictions should differentiate their evaluation system for teachers according to their professional needs. Example: novice, experienced and needing intensive assistance.

21. Variation of Performance
Variation of performance is to be expected, because of many factors.
When the context of teaching changes (the level, the content, or the environment), an experienced teacher can become, in effect, a novice.