Teacher Performance and Development as a Driver of Teacher and School Improvement

Lessons from the field

Graham MarshallSenior Research FellowGraduate School of EducationUniversity of Melbourne

Teacher Evaluation

Teachers need feedback on their performance to help them identify how to better shape and improve their teaching practice and, with the support of effective school leadership, to develop schools as professional learning communities. At the same time, teachers should be accountable for their performance and progress in their careers on the basis of demonstrated effective teaching practice. (Teacher Evaluation OECD 2009)

Does Teacher Performance and Development drive school

improvement?

Results of a study of 5 Schools around Australia• Australind Senior High School, Western Australia• Ringwood Secondary College, Victoria• Dandenong North Primary School, Victoria• Lakemba Public School, New South Wales• St. Paul’s School, Queensland

The Australian Teacher Performance & Development Framework - August 2012

An Annual Cycle with 3 broad phases• Reflection and Goal Setting

• Professional Practice and Learning

• Feedback and Review

The Framework and Teaching Practice

• Central to the Framework was the concept that teachers needed to have a very clear understanding of effective teaching.

• Each of these 5 schools demonstrated this – each in their own way.

School based initiatives

Lakemba Public School. NSW

The Lesson Study Method

How do we know these school initiatives are successful

• All teachers are actively involved in the teacher P & D processes

• The processes have been operating for at least two years and longer in most cases

• There is general if not complete support from the staff• The processes directly impact on classroom practice

A common point of entry

• Schools determine what good teaching looks like.

• Becomes the starting point for establishing successful teacher performance and development processes.

Developing a common understanding of good teaching practice

Australind Senior High School, WA

Training Program on instructional strategies and classroom management

A Focus on Feedback on Teaching Practice

• Focus given to feedback to teachers and teachers acting on that feedback

• The most significant feedback seemed to be feedback based on classroom observation

The importance of classroom observation

Dandenong North Primary School. Victoria

Feedback based on Classroom observation

Multiple Sources of Feedback

• All schools used multiple sources of feedback to teachers

• These included- classroom observation - student feedback - student performance data - feedback from teacher colleagues

Feedback from multiple sources

St. Paul’s School, WA

Feedback from multiple sources

Formative and Summative assessment• All schools used both formative and summative

assessments though formative assessment was the driver.

• The focus of each school was on teaching, how it could be improved and formative assessments of teachers (through feedback) that would help them to improve.

• The summative assessments arose from the accumulated formative assessments.

Some Conclusions 1

• The entry point for each of these schools to effective teacher performance and development was a leadership passion for improved teacher practice matched to the skill these leaders showed in developing effective customised school based processes.

Some Conclusions 2

• The starting point in each case was an identification and agreement about what good teaching looked like. The objective was improved teaching practice not improved accountability.

Some Conclusions 3

• As the focus was on formative assessment and teacher improvement it was not difficult to bring the cumulative formative assessments together to develop summative assessments which all schools did.

Has the Australian Teacher Performance and Development Framework got it right?

• The evidence suggests it has- broad imperatives for all schools to ensure

that teachers get multiple sources of feedback- school level flexibility with implementation- it is school leaders who make it work- a focus on teaching practice as the key driver of teacher performance and development- a focus on formative teacher assessments

can also deliver effective summative teacher assessments

So does Teacher Performance and Development drive school improvement?

http://www.newsroom.aitsl.edu.au/blog/consultation-support-materials-0

The link between formative and summative assessment

Australind Senior High School, WA

Formative and summative assessment of teachers