STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES AND BIAS IN AN AUTHORS WORK

Strengths, Weaknesses and Bias in an Authors Work

Strengths, Weaknesses and Bias in an Authors Work

Introduction

It is important to think about evaluation methods of teachers that might or might not reflect quality teaching skills when it comes to holding teachers at such a high level for student achievement. The two main purposes of teacher evaluation, assuring teacher quality and facilitating improvement in teachers' work, will best be achieved when teachers and their organizations claim the responsibility for developing and implementing methods for assessing teacher performance that respect the complexity and depth of their professional knowledge and practice (Kleinhenz & Ingvarson, 2004). In other words, do current teacher evaluation procedures assess all the components that teachers are supposed to possess?

The majority of educators agree with the fact that holding teachers accountable is imperative for student learning to take place. However, a lively debate surrounds the question of how accountability is established and about the place and value of professionalism in accountability (Bullough, Clark, & Patterson, 2003). According to Gallagher (2002) schools such as Vaughn Elementary in Los Angeles, California evaluate teachers in ten domain areas, and teachers are not only evaluated by their principal, but by peers and themselves, too. Teachers are rated on a scale of one to four on each standard. This school found that the alignment between taught and tested curriculum, both in terms of content and cognitive demand, is a highly significant predictor of student performance. This study did make it clear, however, that no single measure should be seen as the sole criterion for judging performance. In this school's case, other factors such as the large population of English language learners would be taken into account. This study shows the possibility of improving teacher evaluation systems by clearly defining high quality teaching in specific subject areas and evaluating teachers based on that definition.

Analysis

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT) are all organizations that recognize teachers of outstanding quality. Vandevoort et al. (2004) found that students of NBCT's learn more than students whose teachers do not hold this prestigious credential. Increasing the number of teachers who earn National Board Certification will have a direct impact on raising student achievement levels in schools across the country. Some policymakers feel that by having more nationally certified teachers employed in a school district, student achievement is more cost effective because teachers make a personal decision to work towards becoming certified. This, in turn, saves the district money because most teachers pay out of their own pocket to apply for certification and take the required exams in order to earn these prominent awards. While students of NBPTS certified teachers' outperformed students whose teachers were not NBPTS certified on curriculum embedded assessments, there was no significant difference on external measures (Gallagher, 2002). It is believed that by having more highly qualified teachers in the classroom, student achievement will ...