Contact:
Charles Barone | 202.674.3020 | CharlesBarone@dfer.org
Devin Boyle | 202.445.0416 | Devin@dfer.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New DFER Policy Paper Indicates that a “Culture of Countenance” in Teacher Observations May Set New Evaluation Reforms Up for Failure If Not Addressed
Washington, May 21, 2013 – Today, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) released the “Culture of Countenance: Teachers, Observers and the Effort to Reform Teacher Evaluations.” In the paper, DFER Policy Analyst and former teacher Mac LeBuhn writes that unless reformers can change the “culture of countenance,” new reforms to evaluations will continue the same quality-blind practices.
“Despite a concerted effort to improve teacher evaluations, many new evaluation systems still do not reflect the wide differences in teacher effectiveness—and much of this failure stems from a culture of countenance in teacher observations,” said LeBuhn.
After many recognized that evaluation systems were not meaningful, policymakers implemented evaluation reforms in more than 35 states. In states like Tennessee and Florida, however, the new evaluation systems look much the same as those they were designed to replace: the reformed systems still label 97 percent or more of teachers as satisfactory or better.
“The technical effort to fix shortcomings in the observation system has not been as successful thus far as reformers had hoped,” LeBuhn asserts in the paper. “The failure of reforms to address the deeper issue, the culture of countenance, is a main cause of the lackluster performance of reformed observation systems.” Reformers forgot that over the course of decades, observers learned to work in systems that did not value critical feedback and in which teachers grew accustomed to automatic endorsements of their practice.
“If evaluation systems are a vessel meant to ferry teachers to better practice, then observation systems remain the lead weight tied to the back, dragging systems down with unwaveringly positive feedback that obscures true insight into teacher practice,” LeBuhn continues in the report.
Teacher observations, the major measure of teacher effectiveness in most evaluation systems, are responsible for much of the lackluster performance of reformed evaluation programs. Teachers and observers alike are accustomed to a culture of countenance in which homogenously positive feedback is the norm—a practice that keeps teachers from receiving valuable feedback and administrators from identifying low performers.
“Culture of Countenance,” describes how a tradition of high observation scores, inadequate guidance from state educational agencies and a division between evaluation and professional development resources contributed to the growth of the culture of countenance. It recommends eight policy changes to improve observation systems.
###
About Democrats for Education Reform
Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) is a political action committee with 13 state offices whose mission is to encourage a more productive dialogue within the Democratic Party on the need to fundamentally reform American public education. DFER operates at all levels of government to educate elected officials and support reform-minded candidates for public office.
————————————————-
Read “Culture of Countenance: Teachers, Observers and the Effort to Reform Teacher Evaluations,” by Mac LeBuhn here.