Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation
Michael Mitchell, PhD(c)
Teacher / Adjunct Professor
Florida SouthWestern Collegiate
Punta Gorda, Florida, United States
Liliana RodrÃguez -Campos, Ph.D.
Professor
University of South Florida, United States
Michael Mitchell, PhD(c)
Teacher / Adjunct Professor
Florida SouthWestern Collegiate
Punta Gorda, Florida, United States
Location: White River Ballroom I
Abstract Information: Experienced teachers are leaders in their own classrooms and at their schools and have honed their craft through years of trial, self-reflection, and collaboration with peers. Mentor teachers can help new teachers develop their skills. It is the moral and ethical responsibility of administrators to evaluate these teachers with varying degrees of experience so they can further improve their abilities. However, due to constraints placed on administrators from school boards, state legislatures, and private companies, many evaluations are conducted with less desirable outcomes at the least, or it is an exercise of checking the appropriate boxes at the worst. A true collaboration between the teacher being evaluated, the administrator, and perhaps mentor teachers who are helping new teachers can design a truly effective evaluation aimed at continuous improvement that is constructive in nature and customized for the appropriate level of experience of the teacher. A framework like the Model for Collaborative Evaluations (MCE) is a way that could provide a path for such successful evaluations. Essential components of the MCE include guiding evaluators to infuse the high moral values into the evaluation and using established ethical rules from professional organizations to design efficient and effective evaluations. This roundtable will create a fertile environment for discussion of the challenges of teacher evaluations and how these challenges may be overcome using such tools as the MCE and others.
Relevance Statement: Teachers have been leaving the educational field in record numbers. There have been various efforts to stem the flow of this exodus with increased pay, better insurance, and promotion of greater respect for the profession, among other things. One facet of teaching that teachers would welcome is changing the structure of evaluations. Ideally, teacher evaluations should provide opportunities for personal and professional growth. Teacher evaluations have been influenced by state legislatures, boards of education, private educational companies, and direct supervisors, creating a complex dynamic that can result in loss of the true goal of teacher evaluations, that is, improvement of the craft of teaching to better help student learning and development. It is the ethical responsibilities of the above stakeholders to create a teaching environment conducive to allowing teachers to hone their craft. One framework that could provide an efficient way to achieve equitable and effective evaluations is the use of the Model for Collaborative Evaluations. This framework creates a collaborative environment that promotes the guidance for evaluators based on high moral standards and sound ethics. In view of the great need to recruit and retain teachers, the MCE components could be used to guide the discussion of brainstorming ideas for evaluations that will help give teachers a sense of ownership and value of their teaching.