Providing Teachers With a Choice in Evaluation: A Case Study

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 63
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers and Unions Leading the Way! Teacher-Led Change, Decision Making, and Professional Learning

Abstract

Given challenges in teacher evaluation and the need to develop new approaches, this qualitative research study explores one district's approach to evaluation, in which the negotiated agreement offered teachers three choices of evaluation: administrator (a principal or assistant principal), partner (or peer teacher), or portfolio. Five teachers and one district administrator who had participated in the evaluation system were interviewed in the spring of 2014. Results describe the evaluation options teachers chose, their perceptions of the evaluations, and the process of choosing within the choice-based system. Implications relate to considerations in designing such evaluation systems, thus promoting reform efforts.

Authors

• Sharon C. Conley, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Elizabeth Anne Mainz, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Laura Wellington, Western Washington University