The Principal's Handbook

Having Meaningful Teacher Evaluations
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[00:00:00] In this episode, we're talking about having meaningful teacher evaluations. That's all coming up next on the Principal's Handbook.

Speaker: Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go-to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self-care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.

From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority. I.

, Welcome to the Principal's Handbook. Today we are talking about having meaningful teacher evaluations, and I came up with this topic because as I'm in a new school and I'm starting evaluations.[00:01:00]

I'm realizing just how different, obviously, expectations are between administrators and even the type of feedback that teachers were given and things like that. And my first couple evaluations, just making sure that I'm giving good feedback, but also being encouraging because you don't wanna create this culture where, this new person comes in and evaluations just.

They're very critical or just seem very harsh,, , it's a fine balance, I think, between having meaningful teacher evaluations where you give really good feedback without being critical and having people leave feeling like they're not a good teacher.

And so that's really the what we're, that's really what we're talking about today, and I'm going to give you four steps to make evaluations clear, supportive and growth oriented. , Because again, I think that it can be really hard if we're doing evaluations in a subjective way. And I know every state is a little bit different.

So as I talk about this, I'm in the state of Ohio. We have the [00:02:00] Ohio Teacher Evaluation rubric. We call it otez, the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System. And it was based off of Danielson's Framework. And I know from talking to other administrators in different states, a lot of states have rubrics based off of Danielson's framework.

So even though it might not be the same rubric, it's the same idea. And hopefully no matter where you're observing, there is some sort of framework rubric that you're using to evaluate, because you want to have the tools that you need to evaluate. So that's the first thing to think about is what tools do you have?

Because I know when I started teaching, I'm thinking this was, 15 years ago. , They didn't originally have a rubric like that for the state of Ohio. I think it was more subjective for the district that I was in, and I think it was my second year of teaching that they, the Otez rubric came out.

And so hopefully at this point your district has the tools that you need. [00:03:00] To be evaluating. , And we're gonna talk about what that looks like, but also another thing I want you to think about is what does your evaluation practices look like? It can be easy to skip things If you're putting out fires all day, if you're constantly in reaction mode, then you might put teacher evaluations on the back burner and you might just do the least amount possible.

I know like in our district, we have to do a pre-conference, the evaluation and a post-conference and . That's actually a state of Ohio thing, and I know in our district we do a pre-conference, an observation, and a post-conference. And you can't skip those. But I know that there are principals in the past, not just where I was necessarily, but just in the past.

I've heard of principals skipping things because they're just so busy. And I just wanna say that teacher evaluations are so important because it's one of the main opportunities we have to be instructional leaders in the building.

There's a lot of different opportunities, but it is a time that you get to observe teachers, see what's happening in the [00:04:00] classroom, and you can give really constructive feedback. And I'm gonna talk a little bit more about all of that, but I just wanna reinforce the importance of teacher evaluations. And making sure that you're doing those with the integrity of however they're supposed to be done in your district.

Now with that, I will go on the other spectrum. I have a principal I was talking to who does a rubric and spends like three hours on the rubric. You've gotta find that balance of giving meaningful feedback and making it be sustainable. So as we go into that, just think about that. You want it to be a really meaningful process.

You wanna make sure you're giving good feedback. You wanna make sure you're not cutting corners, but also it's not necessarily practical to give three hours of feedback. I know for me, I have 24. Teachers I'm evaluating. So if I was to do three hours of feedback per teacher time, some of them have two evaluations in my old district, some of them had three evaluations.

That would be a lot of time. And it [00:05:00] just, that's not sustainable. There's no way you could actually do that with your time as a principal. So just thinking about that of how you can do it in a way that's systematic, that makes sure it's done with integrity, but it's also sustainable. All right, so now I'm gonna jump into those four steps to make evaluations clear, supportive and growth oriented for your staff.

So the first thing is really using the rubric as your anchor. So like I said, hopefully your district has some sort of rubric. Every principal I've talked to, they do. , But something that you use that can give feedback to teachers that's objective and consistent. So you should have a rubric that teachers can see, because I always say that teachers have to know what the expectation is during the evaluation.

It's not really fair. If you're getting evaluated and you don't even know what you're being evaluated on or what the standard is for evaluation, and so a rubric is your standard. That rubric for your evaluation system. It's not [00:06:00] just paperwork that you have to do, it's the standard. And so you want teachers to know maybe areas of the rubric you're focusing on.

Or if it's the whole rubric that they know that and making sure they have access to that rubric and what you're going to be observing them and focusing on when you give that feedback. And then when you actually go in and give feedback, you want to give feedback based on the rubric, based on the rubric's language.

Okay. So . In Ohio, we have a rubric with four sections that's ineffective, developing, skilled, and accomplished. And many teachers I work with want to be accomplished. Well, if they wanna be accomplished. I use the exact language in the accomplished section and explain what it would take for them to be accomplished if they're not accomplished.

So it's not just me coming up with, this is what you need to be doing. I'm using it based on. The rubric based on the language from the rubric, for example, I [00:07:00] noticed students were initiating responsibility in the classroom, and that aligns with the Otez rubric related to classroom management. And so that's where it falls in the rubric right here, under skilled or accomplished, right? And so it's not me just saying, oh, the kids were good.

So you get skilled or accomplished. I'm going right with the language from the rubric, and I'm going to have evidence and examples that align with the rubric. And again, everybody's trained in this when they go to do their training for Otez or whatever your rubric is.

But I think the important part is that we maintain that integrity that when you're evaluating everything has to be based on that rubric. Because I was explaining to a teacher the other day, if it's not. Then you're just getting my opinion. And it could change, and that's part of the point of having a consistent rubric is so when you do get a new administrator, even though things can be subjective overall, you know, the evaluation system.

And that's the important part. So using that [00:08:00] rubric as your anchor and going back and using the language from the rubric. Doing PD related to that rubric, right? If that's the expectation of what good instruction looks like, then you're going to do professional development aligned to that rubric so that you can have conversations.

Based on how they'll be evaluated. So really using that rubric as your anchor is the first step I want you to think about. The second step I want you to think about is connect evaluations to school-wide goals. And in our Ohio evaluation system, teachers do professional growth plans. Those growth goals are supposed to be related to the building and district-wide goals, but I think it's really important that all the feedback you give in the evaluation is connected to those school-wide goals.

So, for example, right now in the building I'm working in, our goals are related to PBIS and classroom management. And then we also have goals related to, , we have a new math curriculum and our [00:09:00] reading curriculum, getting it implemented with Fidelity. They've been doing it for a couple of years, but making sure it's done aligned to the science of reading with fidelity.

And so all of those conversations that I have that use rubric specific language, I also wanna tie it back to. Those school initiatives. I wanna tie it back to how does it relate to PBIS? When we're thinking about classroom environment, when I'm giving examples of differentiation, how does that actually fit into the curriculum?

And I'm asking them questions. It doesn't mean I know all the information about the curriculums. But it means I'm asking really good questions to get them thinking about how they can differentiate within the curriculum. One thing that I explain a lot to teachers is if we look at the rubric, what goes, throughout the rubric in multiple sections is how are we using data to guide our instruction?

And so we have conversations around what data is available in those curriculums, and then how can [00:10:00] we differentiate within the curriculum and within the type of instruction that they're doing. , Like I said, I'm in Ohio. Everything's,, in reading. We're a K two building supposed to be aligned to the science of reading with explicit instruction.

So what does differentiation look like when I'm doing explicit instruction? And having those types of conversations, but keeping them. Open-ended questions to help teachers grow, but also making sure that it's connected to those school-wide goals because again, you don't want the evaluation to feel like one more thing.

You want it to re, you want it to reinforce that shared purpose, that , our goal in the building is to improve these things, and so part of that is your evaluation, and we're gonna help you get better and keep growing as a teacher. As we improve these things, so it should all feel aligned.

And through this you can start to really think about, okay, where do the teachers need more PD that's aligned to our goals? And I think about this with PBIS [00:11:00] all the time. Because they did PBIS five years ago. But where was the actual PD on PBIS? How were they actually learning about what PBIS looks like?

What good consequences are related to PBIS? , How do we actually teach expectations? I wasn't there for any of that, and so I don't know. And so , it's going back after having these evaluations, after seeing things happening in the building. And knowing the types of PD that we need to have for these building wide goals so that I can actually support them and help teachers grow.

I mean, we have to keep that growth mindset as our number one goal for these teacher evaluations and not just keep them compliance and paperwork focused. All right, so the first thing again was use the rubric as an anchor. Then connect evaluations to school-wide goals. Now, I want you to find and name the good things happening in that evaluation.

So you want to always highlight strengths that you see. Be very specific and align it to the rubric. Again, we want to use language from the rubric. [00:12:00] So examples might be, I loved your use of wait time and you gave multiple students a chance to reengage and it aligned in the rubric with classroom management.

, Don't use terms like. Your classroom's a really fun classroom. , Students are good, right? What does that mean? Students are good. What did they initiate? Responsibility for the classroom. What does that mean? Were they engaged in the lesson? What did that look like? Pull out quotes.

Pull out real examples that happen and give feedback. That's very specific because if you just say things like, good, or your class is fun, or students are well behaved. It doesn't really highlight strengths for the teacher, and so just like we wanna give them feedback that's evidence-based,

we also wanna highlight strengths that are evidence-based. And before I tell them the good things I saw, I always like to ask them. What do you think went well? What would you do differently next time? That's my [00:13:00] open-ended questions that I like to start with.

And it's interesting to see if what they thought went well is the same as what I thought went well. So just some conversations, starters, some things to think about, but find and name the good that happened in the lesson and make sure you're being specific with those strengths.

So going back, we're going to use the rubric as our anchor. Connect evaluations to school-wide goals and find a name, the good things happening. And then the fourth tip here is be honest, don't sugarcoat. Okay? Teachers deserve clarity. So you wanna frame any areas that they need to improve as areas that they can grow.

Not take it as a time to criticize, but explain how it's an opportunity that they can just get better in this area. How you say it matters if you're calm, if you're supportive, if you're using evidence aligned to the rubric, language from the rubric, and keep it growth focused.

It's going to help so much not make it feel so subjective and like it's a personal attack. [00:14:00] Okay? If we keep everything rubric based, evidence based from the rubric, that makes it very clear that it's not as subjective and it's not a personal attack on the teacher. It's totally about the lesson that you saw and the evidence that you gathered from that lesson.

, I always say we can always give teachers suggestions for growth. It can be really hard if in Ohio, like I said, it's accomplished as the highest if everything is accomplished. But , I think I've had that like one time.

, And one thing that I do to really push people is even if the lesson went really well and they're in skilled, which is the expectation all the way through. Finding those areas to stretch people. , Okay, you're skilled in this area. Let's help you be accomplished in this one area.

How do you do that? And I use the language from the rubric, , here's where you are. And then I talk about this is what accomplish looks like. Okay. So having those stretch goals, if teachers are already doing things in a very skilled manner, and then also thinking [00:15:00] about just how do you continue to support those newer teachers?

They just need the foundational support, right? So you have to remember when you're thinking about growth and feedback or newer teachers or , maybe even veteran teachers who just need to focus on being skilled and getting the basics.

They're gonna focus on one thing where veteran teachers who might need stretched, or those teachers who are already skilled and ready to move on, they can have stretch goals. So , also differentiating with your teachers.

The feedback you're giving. You know you're not giving every teacher the same feedback. You're using that rubric to really give evidence aligned feedback that's going to help them. And then you wanna make sure that you're not just dropping that feedback and forgetting about it. You wanna circle back to it later to check progress.

So in Ohio, it's interesting, they just changed the evaluation process a couple years, but I actually love it. The first time we do the whole rubric and we, , give teachers ratings in all areas and go [00:16:00] through the whole rubric. Then the next observation, we actually do a focused area. So then I give them that specific feedback.

And then for the next observation, I actually only have to focus on those certain areas that I gave them feedback on, which is really nice. And you circle back later to check progress. And if you have a teacher who only gets one evaluation, you could always do this through a walkthrough or do it in a more informal way, but you wanna make sure in some capacity when you're giving feedback, you circle back.

But the biggest thing you have to remember, and this might be a mindset reframe for you, evaluations are not gotchas. It's not the time to say that you've got a teacher. They're coaching conversations. Every observation is a chance to help your teachers grow and a chance to help your school work towards those instructional goals that you're focusing on.

Now, I will say make sure you always follow timelines, because if you have a teacher who's really struggling. And you do have the [00:17:00] opportunity to not renew their contract. You wanna have all your ducks in a row when it comes to the evaluation system that you have been giving them this feedback that you did go through the entire evaluation process.

If you don't do everything that you're supposed to do and then you have a teacher that you get, to march and you're like, I'm really concerned. I don't think that they should be teaching kids. I don't wanna renew their contract here. You need to make sure that you met all your timelines, because how it works in Ohio, if we didn't meet our timelines, then you can't get rid of that teacher.

So again, you don't want it to be a gotcha system, but obviously if you have major concerns about a teacher, you wanna make sure that you've been documenting everything and doing it the way that you're supposed to. . I just wanna go back and review those four things.

You wanna use the rubric as your anchor. Connect evaluations to school-wide goals. Find and name the good things happening, and then be honest with your feedback. Don't sugarcoat it. As you do your evaluations, I want you to think about the simple structure to follow.

[00:18:00] First start with teacher reflection. Let them think about the good that happened in the lesson and what they would do different. Then share one strength with them. That's rubric and evidence-based one, growth area, rubric and evidence-based. And then follow up. How can you go back and support them in that growth area?

So as you go through the week, just think about that. Those are small steps that you can take to improve the evaluation process. So I hope that was helpful. I hope you found some tips to help with your evaluations and if you want more support and coaching, I'm so excited.

I have a new monthly membership. I have two tiers and I'll put a link in the show notes where you can actually join us for monthly coaching and challenges where I am here to support you. And give you the feedback that you need, but in a way that doesn't take a lot of time. So make sure you check that link.

Check out my monthly program, the eight to four Principal Leadership Hub, where I give you so many tools to help [00:19:00] you lead better. . Please leave a review for the show . It helps people find the show, and I hope you have a great week.