Teacher evaluation (and unions for that matter) are kind of my life's work right now.
The real issue is that the value-added measures that are typically used to measure teacher effectiveness have significant statistical problems. When you add to that the issue that current evaluation systems do not really measure the variables that have been proven to be necessary for high quality teaching and learning, it becomes a serious mess. And, when you add in the fact that administrators in schools do not have the time or expertise to put toward meaningful evaluation, you find us where we are right now.
Until the money is invested in a good evaluation system with sufficient time and training for administrators to use it properly, unions are going to fight against changes to tenure, evaluation and seniority rights. The current climate is one where most of the dismissals (except for ones related to obvious misconduct) are political and retaliatory and not based on sound evidence of ability to do one's job.
This is one of the best posts in this entire thread, IMHO.
This is precisely the reason why teachers are 'hard to fire' (they aren't really, as I think we've since seen), why they claim via union representation (rightly? wrongly?) that teaching can't be evaluated fairly using any existing tools, and that therefore, pay-for-performance is ultimately a losing proposition.
Teachers themselves could, completely anonymously, identify the "good" teachers in any school building in about five minutes. They
all know what it looks like. Can it be taught/mentored/encouraged? Sure. But innate ability plays a much larger role than most of that, in my own experience. Good teachers
can be made. Great ones, though, not-so-much. No amount of training can produce a great one. They're born.
The problem is retaining those
great teachers in the profession that currently rewards the trained, 'good' teachers. (The ones that do professional development annually, serve on committees, can show all of the administrators a great lesson plan, do the most to 'boost' all-important test scores, etc. etc. etc.)
