While I was riding home from work on Monday June 9th, I heard a fascinating story on NPR that really resonated with the Blog that I posted on June 5^th entitled “Getting Past the Cranky”. So what resonated you ask, my response, "instructional supervision and evaluation needs a major overhaul in this country and I think the genie is now out of the bottle on this important topic". Here comes “the white elephant”…… if that is the case, then who is best suited to take on the essential job of teacher supervision and evaluation ……, not administrators according to the Toledo Ohio Teachers Union!

 

According to the NPR story, since 1981, the Toledo Ohio school district has been using a process called “Peer Review” to evaluate every teacher who is serving in their first year in that district. It does not matter if you are a rookie right out of college or a seasoned veteran with lots of experience, in your first year in Toledo you go through the peer review process. If you do not cut it, you’re gone!

 

Why do they use teachers to conduct the peer review process, because several years ago the Toledo Teachers Union concluded that administrators did a really lousy job with respect to the supervision and evaluation of teachers (ouch). The union leadership (read that union president) decided that they needed to step up and start “policing their own ranks”!! No body wants to work with a bad teacher! Have I caught your attention yet??

 

Here are a few story highlights to ponder:

· Each teacher in their first year in Toledo is “supervised” by a team of consultants/master teachers. The consultants evaluate all aspects of the teachers professional responsibility including, classroom management, lesson planning, content knowledge critiques, attendance, tardiness etc.

· At the end of the year a panel of teachers convenes and they decide who gets retained or dismissed. Last year approximately 110 teachers went through peer review and 13 were dismissed. (I am just telling you what I heard folks)

· 70 school districts across the country are now using some form of a peer review process including school districts in Ohio, Florida and Connecticut.

· Toledo union leaders contend that the prime reason why teachers are dismissed from their district include the following: No stage presence, (students read that as lack of confidence and it leads to serious classroom management problems), Lack of organization, and perhaps most egregious, some of these new hires do not know a “damn thing”

Now for the million dollar question, “does peer review improve classroom instruction”, according to the NPR correspondent who presented the story you would not think so by looking at the student performance scores in Toledo. The Union response to that finding, “just think how bad the scores might be if we did not use peer review”!!!!

 

Let me be clear, I am not selling “peer review” per se as the supervision and evaluation panacea , I am advocating that we address the white elephant with zeal and purpose….our kids need us to step up and starting leading for instructional improvement at all levels.

To Listen to NPR story click here