How should teachers be evaluated? Question being debated in Cleveland and across the country
By Edith Starzyk, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/02/2010
- Agnon School teacher Dina Rock goes over a project with fifth-grader Gabe Sugerman.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — As contract negotiations grind on in Cleveland, one sticking point has been schools CEO Eugene Sanders’ push for a new way of evaluating teachers — “a real assessment of teacher performance,” as he put it in a May 11 update.
But what is a fair and accurate way to grade teachers?
The question is being asked across the country as administrators and unions scuffle over whether evaluations should begin to replace seniority in decisions about pay, assignments and job security.
The answer promises to affect teachers everywhere. Dina Rock from The Agnon School in Beachwood is one of them.
“Evaluation is a very hot topic now, but to me, it’s so scary,” said the 22-year veteran. “How do you evaluate performance when sometimes the goal is to just get the child into school every day, happy and wanting to learn? How do you level the playing field when there are so many variables?
“There are so many effective, wonderful teachers out there who don’t get the recognition they deserve because the difference they make doesn’t show up on paper.”
Rock is part of a small group of educators who have been brainstorming a new template for assessing teacher performance since last year.
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