Ohio TIF and OTES: Evaluation for Professional Growth
Core Belief
There is an urgency toensure all students graduate from high school prepared for college, careers, and future opportunities. We know a critical link exists between teacher effectiveness and student achievement. Effective educator evaluations are an important part of strengthening the teaching profession and providing professional growth opportunities for all.
The Context: Preparing for College, Careers and Life Opportunities
All students, regardless of where they live, deserve access to a high-quality education that prepares them for success in college, careers, and future life opportunities. We live in a rapidly changing world where technology continues to advance, low-skill/living-wage jobs continue to disappear, and businesses continue to look globally for qualified employees.
Education is the linchpin for future economic success–for our country and individual citizens. Having a high school diploma is not enough. Today’s students need some form of post-secondary education and training to have the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the demands of current and future careers.
Educators are rising to the challenge to adapt to this new reality, and embrace changes that will help prepare students for economic prosperity and future success.
This work involves a number of inter-connecting pieces, including:
- What teachers teachthrough the Common Core and state standards
- How teachers teach and how students respond through formative instructional practices
- Evidence of student learning through assessments and value-added data
- Evidence of teacher effectiveness, demonstrated through measures of teacher performance and student growth.
The Focus: Increasing Teacher Effectiveness
Research shows educator effectiveness is the single most important classroom factor relative to improving students’ achievement levels. Because of this, it makes sense for states, districts and schools to invest time and resources to bring out the best in all educators and ensure there is an effective teacher in every classroom.
Just like there needs to be high expectations for students, there needs to be high expectations for teachers and school leaders. And just like students receive feedback and support to improve their learning, teachers also should receive feedback and support to continually improve their classroom practices and professional growth.
Educator evaluations systems provide teachers timely feedback and targeted support to help good teachers become great teachers. Astrong evaluation system is one where resources and efforts are focused on increasing effectiveness in the classroom and supporting the teaching professional to help all students reach their potential. Evaluations are not about simply giving teachers a rating and punishing those who don’t measure up. An effective evaluation system is focused on professional growth and improvement, and helps everyone in the profession, including the best, continually get better.
The Goal: Evaluation for Professional Growth
It is important for educator evaluation systems to be locally designed in partnership with teachers and principals and align with individual district goals and values. However, effective evaluation systems share similar components.
The Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) is a framework from the State Board of Educationto help districts strengthen their evaluation systems and professional growth opportunities for teachers.
OTES was developed collaboratively by Ohio teachers, administrators, higher education faculty, statewide professional organizations, and national experts, and designed to be transparent and adaptable to the diverse contexts of Ohio’s school districts. By 2013-2014, all Ohio school districts will be required to align their local evaluation systems to OTES.
The OTES framework is aligned to Ohio’s standards for teachers, and is based 50 percent on measures of teacher performance, and 50 percent on student growth data. Through the OTES process,with activities including goal-setting, observations, evidence of communication and professionalism, and a summative evaluation, teachers will receive ongoing feedback about their classroom performance. Targeted professional learning opportunities and support will be provided from the results of the evaluation to help teachers more positively impact student performance.
Many school districts have models of successful evaluation systems. However, adapting and aligning local evaluation systems to the OTES framework provides all Ohio school districts with the opportunity to continue designing and implementingeducator evaluation processes truly focused on strengthening teachers to improve student outcomes.
The Opportunity: Pioneering through Ohio TIF
Ohio TIF focuses on recognizing and growing highly effective teachers with the goal of raising student achievement and positively impacting student outcomes. Part of the work in Ohio TIF involves designing and implementing evaluation systems that support local values, beliefs, and goals to bring out the best in teachers and help all students succeed.
Through the Ohio TIF grant, participating districts are working to align evaluation systems to the OTES framework in the 2012-2013 school year–a year ahead of the rest of the state. The 2012-2013 school year represents a phased-in, transition approach for aligning evaluation systems to the OTES framework. By participating in this phased-in approach, Ohio TIF districts have the opportunity to be creative and innovative, and at the same time test out the OTES system in a low-stakes environment to make sure it achieves the goals of providing feedback and support for professional growth.
Designing and implementing effective evaluation systems is hard work, and groundbreaking work. But it is a valuable and worthwhileeffort to support teachers in their efforts to help all students reach their highest potential.
Ohio TIF and OTES: Evaluation for Professional Growth1
Presented March 16, 2012
Ohio Department of Education and Battelle for Kids