ment of Education and it too can be linked
back to the accountability conversation, but
with a twist. Rather than mandating tighter
controls, the grant offered pilot sites the op-
portunity to join a small but growing num-
ber of districts interested in pursuing the
challenging task of developing a continuous
improvement system that supports effec-
tive teaching and the professional growth of
teachers.
Without question, there is room for
improvement in California’s current sys-
tem. For example, Robla’s system has been
two-fold. There is an informal process dur-
ing which principals work with individual
teachers to set specific goals and then con-
duct classroom observations looking for
evidence of those goals. The second, formal
process, involves two 45-minute observa-
tions with a final summary that goes in
teachers’ files.
The superintendent estimates that 95 per-
cent of teachers receive the highest ratings
in those formal evaluations. That may sound
like a good thing, but while Robla has great
teachers, it isn’t because all of them consis-
tently excel. We know that the ratings are
sometimes inflated because principals don’t
want to put negative feedback into teach-
ers’ files. Nor do they want to come across as
overly critical with beginning teachers.
We know that because of the “honest”
feedback that came through informal dis-
cussions with principals about their teachers
and through the superintendent’s own ob-
servations of teaching practices. The practice
of high scoring is problematic and makes it
clear that the commitment and skill set of
principals varies.
Relevant research and policy initiatives
across the country over the past 20-plus
years hint at other challenges, including
the technical complexity (e.g., limitations
of measures, calibration), along with the
social, economic and political implications,
including equitable distribution of teachers,
contract negotiations, performance-based
compensation, locally controlled funding
and value-added measures that factor into
the thinking and actions behind the effec-
tiveness movement.
It is easy to get “lost” in the complexity,
to focus on mitigating the challenges, and
Principals need to be
seen as partners in
helping teachers grow as
professionals.
to lose track of the reason for actually hav-
ing an educator effectiveness movement,
which is essentially to find ways to improve
the education of all students by supporting
the professional growth and development
of educators.
Drivers of improvement
When REEd reached out to Robla it was
not with the goal of helping it to overcome
challenges or to ignore the complexity of
the task, but rather