Teacher Evaluation

In Ontario, teachers are evaluated based on a system called Teacher Performance Appraisal (TPA). This system is split into two categories,one for ‘new’ teachers and one for ‘experienced’ teachers, and is designed topromote teacher development, promote meaningful assessments of teachers’performance that encourage professional learning and growth, identifyopportunities for additional support where required, and provide a measure ofaccountability to the public. New teachers are all teachers hired permanently for the first time, while experienced teachers are those who have passed the NTIP or worked prior to their current hired position.

In assessments, for both new and experienced teachers, competency statements describing the skills, attitude, and knowledge used in their practice, classroom observations by the principal, appraisal meetings promoting discussion between teacher and principal to reflect on what can be changed or what is good, summative reports on how the assessments went with rating and additional support to improve their teaching if needed are all used. To gather input from students or parents, usually schools will have parent-teacher conferences to discuss the well-being of the children and talk of any problems the students will have. The parent and student input combined with the principals or vice-principals observations and duties explained above are how teacher are evaluated, according to the Teacher Performance Appraisal manual.

In my opinion, in theory it is a suitable form of evaluation. The separate parts, explained before, are all vital to checking to make sure teachers are educating properly but with the high amount of teachers to the one to three vice-principals and principal could make it hard to know at all times. Additionally, VP’s and principals also have other responsibilities, so they can’t always know if a teacher is teaching appropriately. However, in my own experience all the teachers I have had have been satisfactory meaning they taught me what they needed to and followed the guidelines they had. When a teacher wasn’t teaching correctly, they were usually dealt with by the principal after numerous comments by parents or them seeing it themselves. I don’t think anything needs to be changed about the assessment process. Theoretically it should be efficient and provide the information of if a teacher is competent. The only time a teacher would pass this assessment but still be a horrible teacher is if they was a good liar, or an opportunity didn’t arise where their true personality showed through. Thus, I would keep the assessment the same.

When I asked Dr. Bilaniuk about how teachers are evaluated, she explained the process as occurring every 5 years, that there is a list of things that need to be looked at or assessed, administration and the teacher choose from this list and pick a date to evaluate it. When asked if this was affective, Dr. Bilaniuk held the same reaction as I. We both believe a pre-arranged date leads to time to prep specific lessons and have the students on their best behaviour. While this sounds ideal, in teaching Dr. Bilaniuk says it is not about pre-arranged lessons but rather what occurs daily. Each day there are students who act differently from day to day, while one day can be good another day can be problematic. With pre-arranged meetings and evaluations, teachers can prepare and make the classroom be on its best behaviour. Her overall thoughts on the evaluation process are that they are pointless and shouldn’t be used.