Evaluating the Teacher Evaluators

Educators of young children require certain unique skills that differ from those required for children in higher (and more-often tested) grades. Teachers of children in their first years of life lay the foundation of knowledge that children build on for the rest of their educational careers. Therefore, it is particularly important that educators in this field are highly knowledgeable on appropriate content and best teaching practices for young children. Evaluating teachers ensures we are holding educators accountable and gives teachers an opportunity to obtain professional development that will improve their skills. As early childhood is unique, evaluators must be familiar with early childhood pedagogy in order to evaluate teachers accurately.

CEELO’s policy report How are Early Childhood Teachers Faring in State Teacher Evaluation Systems? found that the majority of the states studied use principals or other administrators to evaluate classroom activities and teachers. Although many elementary school principals have prior experience teaching in children’s classrooms, they are not required to be certified or hold a license in early childhood and often have no experience teaching young children. Their knowledge of learning and teaching may span pre-K through grade 12 generally, but they often lack specific training in early childhood education.

If states do not use principals or administrators to conduct evaluation, they use certified evaluators, state employees specifically trained to use state-determined instruments to evaluate classrooms. Evaluators are not required to have any specific background knowledge in early childhood, and may not be familiar with best practices in early childhood classrooms. As states continue to roll out new teacher evaluation programs, especially those with high stakes, they should be committed to providing professional development to those who are involved in making these decisions. According to a study in Maryland, principals themselves were concerned about the capacity of principals to serve as evaluators. How can an elementary principal or certified evaluator accurately evaluate an early childhood teacher’s performance when many have little prior understanding of how early childhood classrooms operate? 

The National Governors Association offers policy recommendations; all principals should be certified evaluators and should complete a certification to be eligible to score teachers. This should include a specific category for early childhood grades. They also recommend that states track professional development and adopt reasonable timelines for their teacher evaluation program, to ensure principals are receiving the education they need to evaluate a teacher before the state fully rolls out high-stakes evaluation.

With a strong current focus on teacher evaluation policy, some states are beginning to make efforts to guarantee that evaluators are familiar with early childhood classroom instruction before they evaluate teachers in early childhood classrooms. Some states, such as Delaware and Illinois are currently developing early childhood-specific training for evaluators in the coming year. Certification of observers should not only include acknowledgment that they are able to accurately score a classroom, but also ensure they are able to prove they gave the right score for the right reason. In order to do this, they must have extensive scoring practice in authentic scoring scenarios. The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) is developing a report on what principals should know about early childhood education.

CEELO found that states are also developing resources to ensure that administrators or evaluators have a clear understanding of what “good teaching” looks like in relation to the allowed observational frameworks. Each component is important to ensure that best practices are used to educate young children in the classroom. Keeping early education in mind while creating teacher evaluation policy and programs will ultimately strengthen the entire evaluation process.

–Michelle Horowitz, Research Assistant at the National Institute for Early Education Research and the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes.

Check in next week to see Part II of this blog, outlining resources available on teacher evaluation in the early grades.