Reply To: Teacher Evaluation Portal

[nafmeadmin]

Jim,

Because your post appeared focused on student learning and assessment, I shared my opinions for measuring student learning, not participation in music programs.

I agree that these are important considerations for any music teacher\’s work. There should be opportunity to include program elements in a comprehensive teacher evaluation model. I would consider them to be part of teacher professionalism, responsibilities, outreach to families and community, etc. (In the Charlotte Danielson \”Framework for Teaching\” model, these attributes are found in Domain 4, Professional Responsibilities.) It\’s just that individual districts have so much to do with program decision-making via financial support, scheduling, concert calendar, access to students, and class size limits; not many teachers (alone) can control these conditions. And in considering festival ratings as part of teacher evaluation, it is difficult to adjudicate each student\’s performance within the group setting. Still, the carrying out of these duties reflects strongly on a school\’s music teachers.

In my home state of New York, our state education department is requiring 40% of each teacher\’s evaluation to be tied to individual student achievement and/or growth scores. If we were to use program elements in teachers\’ evaluations in my district, it would be part of the remaining supervisory process. I encourage you to find a way to reflect your obvious professional work ethic in this process.

Johanna