An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 5 – Employee Evaluations

B. W RITTEN C LASSROOM O BSERVATIONS A critical component of a teacher’s performance is effectiveness as a classroom teacher. The evaluator must observe the teacher’s classroom instruction in order to accurately assess the teacher’s performance in this critical area. The evaluator will want to keep a detailed written record of the classroom observations in order to communicate the observations to the teacher and to recall and refer to specifics about the observations, both when discussing the evaluations after they occur and when preparing the annual performance evaluation. The classroom observations can be documented either in a supervisor’s log, a “drop-file” or a computer folder, or in a more formal written observation memorandum. If a more formal written observation memorandum is used, it can be given to the teacher when the evaluator meets with Once the evaluator has determined the appropriate ratings, checking a box or inserting a number to reflect those ratings is relatively straightforward. It is imperative, though, to be accurate in determining the appropriate ratings and not to inflate them. Writing the comments to support those ratings is not as straightforward and evaluators often have difficulty determining how to write evaluation comments and how specific they should be. Evaluations, classroom observation reports, counseling memos, written reprimands and other disciplinary documents all require the same approach. The document should be written with specifics, with an eye toward impact, and in a timely manner. SPECIFICS: Language should specifically describe performance deficiencies and achievements to give the employee adequate notice of what the problems are, and how to fix them. Specific descriptions are harder to refute and help the evaluator recall the exact incident or behavior for possible use in later employment decisions. Generic statements are not helpful to either the employee or the school. Part of being specific is identifying the purpose of the document, for example, “The purpose of this memorandum is to provide you feedback on my observations of your classroom teaching on September 9th.” NOT SPECIFIC  Your classroom was unruly and the students were not paying attention.  You did not maintain order.  The book you read was not appropriate for the fourth grade.  The transition time was disorganized and independent reading time was not well used. SPECIFIC  During the half hour that I observed your classroom instruction from 8:30-9:00 a.m. on September 9, most of the students were not paying attention to the story you were reading and were engaged in off-task behavior. For example, all five students in the back row of the teacher to go over the classroom observation. THREE: Writing Performance Evaluations

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