Aligning Evaluation Models to Professional Teacher Standards

Video Transcription

Welcome. I'm Trisha Fyfe. And in today's video lesson, we'll look at the topic Aligning Evaluation Models to Professional Teacher Standards. As we learn about this topic, we will work toward several learning objectives. And we'll use the following question to guide our learning in this lesson. What are best practices when reviewing a teacher evaluation model for alignment to professional teaching standards?

In this lesson, we will be learning how to compare your teacher evaluation model with professional teaching standards that are in your state or district. This is essential to developing a greater understanding of your specific evaluation tool and the purpose that it has. So let's look at this question. How do you know if an evaluation model is aligned to the professional teaching standards in use by your school and district?

There are some steps that are helpful to follow in answering this question. At the end of this lesson, we'll walk through these steps. First you need to look at both of these side by side. It's extremely helpful to put a copy of the professional teaching standards next to the evaluation model rubric and put them in front of you.

Next it's important to look at the standards. Do they relate as far as the language of the rubrics? Grab a highlighter. Highlight the standards that are included in the rubrics. Are there any standards missing? Does this impact the overall quality of the evaluation model? What changes should be made if this is the case?

It's also helpful to consider best practices for this alignment process. Discuss the exercise or this process with your principal. Based on this meeting, ask, am I able to engage in these exercises with a team, such as a building evaluation team, a school improvement team, or a district level evaluation team? This type of team is often identified by your principal. And many schools have these teams in place at the school and district level.

Engage in this alignment process with this team. With your team, use this data to make adjustments. Make changes to the implementation of the evaluation model. Be sure to find out if this is allowable in your school and district.

If an evaluation team is not in place, consider finding a school-based team. A school improvement team is an example of such a team. With this team, use the data from this alignment process to make adjustments to the implementation of the evaluation model if that's allowable.

Feedback is an excellent tool here. A survey of teachers and administrators is very valuable. This might offer recommendations for changes from a larger school community.

A timeline must be developed. Here it's critical to revisit the impact of the changes. Questions such as, "What is going well? What is not going well? Are there revisions needed?" are very useful here. It's also important to remember that this process may be revisited and revised several times.

Let's walk through some of the steps for alignment we discussed today as well as examine best practices. Let's say a teacher from Washington State is aligning the Marzano teacher evaluation framework aligned to Washington State teaching criteria and the InTASC professional teacher standards. What would this look like?

The InTASC's professional teacher standards are broken down into four categories-- The Learner and Learning, which includes Standard 1, Learner Development, 2, Learning Differences, and 3, Learning Environments. The second area of focus is Content Knowledge, which includes Standard 4 and 5-- Content Knowledge and Application of Content.

Instructional Practice is the next focus area. And this includes Standard 6, 7, and 8-- Assessment, Planning for Instruction, and Instructional Strategies. The final area of this model is Professional Responsibility. And this includes Standard 9, Professional Learning in Ethical Practice, and number 10, Leadership and Collaboration.

Let's review Marzano's Teacher Evaluation Model quickly. Remember, Marzano's Teacher Evaluation Model is broken down into four different domains-- Domain 1, Classroom Strategies and Behaviors; 2, Planning and Preparing; Domain 3, Reflecting on Teaching; and Domain 4, Collegiality and Professionalism.

When you begin the process of alignment, it's helpful to set the two of these side by side. Let's walk through the process of Standard 5 in the InTASC teaching standards.

Here we have Standard 5, Application of Content. The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use different perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem-solving related to authentic local and global issues. You can see here that there are various subsets of this, including 5a, b, c, d, e, f, g, and h. Take a moment to either take a screenshot or pause and take a look and read through each of these strategies. We'll be reviewing them in just a moment.

We will align these to Marzano's framework. For the most part, they fit into Marzano's Domain 1-- Classroom Strategies and Behaviors-- specifically in lesson segments that address content, which includes elements 2.1 through 2.3. Let's walk through each of these from the InTASC model. And we'll relate them to Marzano's Domain 1 elements.

First we have 5a, the teacher develops and implements projects that guides learners in analyzing the complexities of an issue or question using perspectives from varied disciplines. Let's look at the Marzano elements that relate to this.

In this case, several of these elements relate, such as element 2.1, help students effectively interact with new knowledge; element 2.1.5, which is breaking down presentation of content and engaging students in processing new information; as well as 2.1.6, questions and activities that allow students to elaborate on new information; and even 2.3, which is organizing students for cognitively complex tasks.

5b in the InTASC model is that the teacher engages learners in applying content knowledge to real-world problems through the lens of interdisciplinary themes. I would say here that 2.2 and 2.3 relate well to this. 2.2 being helps students practice and deepen knowledge. And 2.3, organizes students for cognitively complex tasks. For 5c in the InTASC model, the teacher facilitates learners' use of current tools and resources to maximize content learning in varied content. I would say element 2.2 and 2.2.6 relate to this.

As we move down, we get to 5d-- the teacher engages learners in questioning and challenging assumptions and approaches in order to foster innovation and problem-solving in local and global contexts. Here element 2.1.6, which is through questions or activities students elaborate on new information, as well as 2.2 and 2.3 relate to this.

Element 5f, the teacher engages learners in generating and evaluating new ideas and novel approaches, seeking inventive solutions to problems and developing original work, relates well to 2.1 and 2.1.7. 5g, the teacher facilitates learners' ability to develop diverse social and cultural perspectives that expand their understanding of local and global issues and create novel approaches to solving problems, relates to Marzano's 2.2.6 and 2.3. And finally, 5h, the teacher develops and implements supports for the learner literacy development across content areas, relates well to 2.1 and 2.1.1 in Marzano's model.

You can see here that we just went down the list in the InTASC Standard 5, Application of Content. And we compared this to Marzano's model and the elements that relate. So if I were doing this by paper in front of me, I would be using my highlighter and highlighting these areas to make sure that we have no missing standards. It's important to make sure that if you do notice that there is something missing, you need to ask the question, does this impact the overall quality of the evaluation model? If it does, you must consider changes that should be made and address these concerns.

So let's talk about what we learned today. We looked at the following question. What are the best practices when reviewing a teacher evaluation model for alignment to professional teaching standards? In this lesson, we walked through the alignment process for evaluation models and professional teaching standards. Not only did I walk you through some helpful steps, but we discussed some best practices and used an example of this process.

Now that you're more familiar with these concepts, let's reflect. Use the strategies and best practices that we discussed today to align your teacher evaluation model to a set of professional teaching standards, such as the InTASC. Thanks for joining me today in discussing the lesson Aligning Evaluation Models to Professional Teaching Standards. I hope you found value in this video lesson and are able to apply these ideas and resources to your own teaching.

Now it's your turn to apply what you've learned in this video. The additional resources section will be super helpful. This section is designed to help you discover useful ways to apply what you've learned here. Each link includes a brief description so you can easily target the resources that you want.