ISSUE SUMMARIES:
Evaluation and Accountability

How to evaluate teacher performance was a major issue, with much discussion about the roles of the principal and peer review in accountability. Participants also extensively discussed what type of accountability was most effective. + Evaluation of peers or principals + Kinds of accountability + Beyond salaries and hours + Better instruction ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Who should hold the ultimate power to evaluate teachers: their peers or the principal? Some participants felt that peer review is the most effective method for teacher evaluation. Teachers know best when other teachers are doing a good job. Also, principal evaluation is fine when the principal is a good instructional leader, but there are many principals who are not. Others felt that principals should retain the ultimate power. How can principals be held accountable for the performance of their schools if they don't have the power to choose and discipline personnel, as a business CEO has? Also, the capacity issue cuts both ways: peer review works for exceptional teachers, but there are many mediocre teachers.   Randi Weingarten President, United Federation of Teachers, New York City Who is the change agent, the principal or the teacher? (43 seconds) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Randi Weingarten President, United Federation of Teachers, New York City The default position when you feel like you are going to get in trouble is to become top-down, hierarchical. (20 seconds) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Alan Bersin Former Secretary of Education California State Government The first obligation of a school district is to provide every teacher with an excellent principal. (20 seconds) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Julia Koppich Education Consultant The law in California was designed to avoid the "dance of the lemons." Districts with peer review do a better job of this. (1 minute, 41 seconds) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Michelle Rhee CEO & President, The New Teacher Project Principals spend 10% to 15% of their time over a period of two years attempting to remove incompetent teachers, and even then they usually can't get rid of them. (1 minute, 8 seconds)   top What type of teacher accountability is most effective to ensure a high quality of instruction? Should accountability be punitive, formative, or incentive-driven? What kinds of supports/interventions are appropriate for teachers?   Alan Bersin Former Secretary of Education California State Government There is a punitive dimension to accountability. That is the meaning of accountability — when you don't produce the result, there are consequences. (45 seconds) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Randi Weingarten President, United Federation of Teachers, New York City Teachers say to themselves, "If I do what I'm told to do, I won't get in trouble." (1 minute, 14 seconds)   top In addition to salaries and hours, what other policies regarding teacher assignment, incentives, rewards, recruitment, and retention affect instructional quality? Should there be more incentives for good performance through recruitment and retention policies, as opposed to punishing bad performance? Should bad teachers be reassigned or receive lower pay, or should they be fired? Recruiting teachers is not as hard as people think — the real problem is retaining high-quality teachers.   Adam Urbanski President, Rochester (NY) Teachers Association Director, Teacher Union Reform Network The problem isn't weeding out bad teachers, but cultivating good ones. (41 seconds) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Adam Urbanski President, Rochester (NY) Teachers Association Director, Teacher Union Reform Network Bad teachers shouldn't be paid less and given fewer choices; they should be paid nothing and given no choices. (1 minute, 13 seconds) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Michelle Rhee ceo & President, The New Teacher Project Contrary to popular belief, people would work in urban districts if they had good hiring processes. (1 minutes, 55 seconds) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   James A. Williams Superintendent, Buffalo Public Schools Play Audio There are three problems in public education: schools don't have enough high-quality teachers, teachers who speak more than one language, or teachers who understand technology. I'm tired of us experimenting on minority children in this country. (3 minutes, 13 seconds)   top Does more teachers union control in collective bargaining lead to better instruction? Participants had differing views of the success of innovative collective bargaining practices featuring more union control.   Marcia Reback President RI Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals There were cutting-edge collective bargaining processes in Providence in the 1970s and 1980s, but they were killed by a superintendent in a drive for micromanagement and uniformity. (3 minutes) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Peter McWalters Commissioner, Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education We can take this rosy view of cutting-edge collective bargaining and construct something pessimistic: there was no supervision of instructional programs or of the quality of individual instruction in the classroom. (28 seconds) top ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------