The Ohio Teacher Evaluation System needs to be modified

Teachers are evaluated every so often and the system needs to change. One problem is a large portion depends on student growth. This growth is measured by SLOs and the state testing.

SLO stands for Student Learning Objectives. In other words, in the beginning of the year we take a test where we know nothing, the teacher projects where they think we will be at the end of the year, and we again take the test. Every student who takes them, dreads SLOs, however they are no longer being used within a few years.

The state testing has two main purposes: teacher evaluation and graduation points. The teacher evaluation portion depends on growth. This is a tricky problem. If a student doesn’t do well in ninth grade and improves in tenth, this benefits teacher. However, this is the only positive outcome. The rest hurts the teacher’s evaluation. If a student performs very high in the first year, it will be hard for them to improve. This does not speak to the teacher’s performance, but the student’s instead.

A solution is to remove the effect of state mandated tests on teacher evaluation and replace it with student reviews. The student evaluations would be a more accurate and fair reflection of the teacher.

Yes, there is a teacher performance portion. However, it is decided when the principal or other school administrator goes in and watches the teacher teach. It is one day out of the year. The year is 180 days long; one day does not tell the entire story.

A student spends the entire school year with teachers, except for the rare day they have a substitute. Students know how a teacher instructs. They know if a teacher prepares them with knowledge they need, not only for a test but also, for life. Students know how the classroom works. There might be the one student who does not like their teacher, but out of their six classes you can get an idea of what type of teacher he/she is.

Students would also help the teacher know what they need to improve on. The point of teacher evaluations is so the teacher can create a professional growth plan. A test does not accurately tell a teacher what needs improvement in his teaching. If most of the students reports that their teacher worked too much on one topic but not enough on another, the teacher can make adjustments. If the majority of students say that a teacher needs to teach more, in general, the teacher can fix the problem and more students would learn.

To implement this, the Ohio Board of Education would send out a survey with questions about how the students felt about each part of the classroom and how the teacher instructs. It would have to be mostly structured so the teachers would know what needs more importance.

The Ohio Board of Education needs to change their teacher evaluation system. Students’ opinions matter. They need to be factored in. They should be accounted for. Should we continue on grading our teachers on an unfair rubric or should we change it so they are graded on what they are doing?