The news site of Glenbrook South High School.

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The news site of Glenbrook South High School.

The Oracle

The news site of Glenbrook South High School.

The Oracle

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Ratings requirement causes reflection, concern among some teachers

Ratings+requirement+causes+reflection%2C+concern+among+some+teachers

Teachers and administrators will receive evaluations with ratings this year as South complies with an Illinois law mandating changes to the evaluations, according to Dr. Rosanne Williamson, assistant superintendent for educational services of District 225.

“The intention there is to have more accountability for administrators, more accountability for teachers, and I think that’s why they’re requiring the ratings,” Williamson said.

According to Matt Whipple, president of the Glenbrook Educators’ Association, teachers will receive a rating from four categories of Excellent, Proficient, Needs Improvement and Unsatisfactory, similar to students’ grades on an A-F scale. The rating will be determined by a state-approved rubric known as the Danielson method. South had previously used the Danielson method for evaluations but without the ratings component.

“[Before], our school petitioned and was granted the approval to eliminate ratings on evaluations so that we could just focus on the descriptors of what made good teachers and what didn’t,” Susan Levine-Kelley, English   Department instructional supervisor, said. “It was much less anxiety-ridden for teachers.”

Levine-Kelley said the language separating the state rubric’s categories can be difficult to differentiate, causing concern for teachers.

“Everyone here really wants to be excellent,” Levine-Kelley said. “To be ‘excellent’ in every category there, every year, all the time, is humanly pretty impossible to have any other life.”

According to an Oracle-conducted survey of 35 teachers, 44 percent preferred the Danielson method without ratings while 17 percent preferred the method with ratings.

Science teacher Jennifer Friedmann said that she believes the Danielson model without ratings was the better fit for South.

“The Danielson framework is an excellent tool for teachers to self-reflect and push themselves to higher professional goals over the long term. However, tying it to a ratings system misappropriates its purpose,” Friedmann said. “The Danielson rubric is highly subjective and is therefore very difficult to tie to quantitative measures. My opinion is that it is a tool meant to foster teaching excellence, not measure it.”

Under the state law, teachers’ ratings will replace seniority in determining which teachers are let go in the case that a school must have a reduction in force due to budgeting or declining enrollment, according to Whipple. Teachers with lower ratings would be let go first, interfering with the tenure system that protects more experienced teachers.

South Principal Dr. Brian Wegley said that South has never had a reduction in force, and likely will not have one in the near future.

“Our student population is increasing over the next several years, so I don’t see that having an immediate impact on us, but [the new system] is something that we will have to work closely with our teachers to, again, make sure that this is something that is put into place thoughtfully and well,” Wegley said.

Head Librarian Christi Shaner said that she believes the system’s shift away from tenure could be positive.

“No system is perfect, but I do like one that encourages teachers to continue to push themselves, not one that only relies on how long one has been teaching,” Shaner said.

Of teachers surveyed, 35 percent believed the shift in the evaluation system would affect their teaching.

“Although I have used the language of the Danielson method in the past to guide my goal setting and subsequent lesson for observation, taking time to appreciate the differences between the ratings [and] categories really got me thinking about where the room for improvement is,” English teacher Julie Schaefer said.

Whipple said that teachers’ experiences with the ratings could affect how conscious they are of their own grading practices.

“It’s been kind of nice for teachers to find themselves here, looking at [ratings], because it reminds us, ‘How do I distinguish, as a teacher in my classroom, what is an A and what is a B, and how do I grade someone?’” Whipple said.

According to Williamson, a committee of teachers and administrators will meet in the spring to reflect on the evaluation process and determine how to proceed within the state’s requirements.

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