Evaluation and Assessment: Is Tere a Difference?
David Potter
Yesterday I sat in on our weekly student teacher seminar course at Michigan State University, when the name Charlotte Danielson entered the conversation. Danielson, a former econo- mist, educator, and political consultant, is the author of the Framework for Teaching, one of the most commonly used models for defin- ing quality teaching in the United States (Te Danielson Group, 2017a). I started to cringe, as it brought back memories of terms like “teach- er evaluation,” “highly effective,” and, worst of all, “high-stakes.” I started to remember times during my teaching when, aſter an observation by my principal, I genuinely thought I would be fired because I failed to state an objective, or my students were perceived by an observer as too rambunctious. When I heard the name Char- lotte Danielson, one word came to my mind: Fear.
I was therefore surprised when a veteran music teacher started to talk about the Danielson framework with the student teachers in a positive way. She talked about how, when she used the framework, her students began to use a common vocabulary, developed higher-or- der thinking skills, and focused on objectives without taking away from the musical flow of the lesson. In other words, her students were learning, and she was learning as a teacher. Aſter listening to this veteran music teacher, a very different word came to my mind: Growth.
I started to wonder: Has my approach to music teacher evaluation and assessment been wrong this whole time? Come to think of it, what exactly are we talking about when we use the words evaluation and assessment? Can a tool be used for student/teacher growth and for evalu- ating teacher effectiveness?
Linda-Darling Hammond, education professor emeritus at Stanford University and former president of the American Educational Re- search Association, describes teacher evalu- ations as standards-based performances of teacher competency that function as part of
broader accountability systems:
Like businesses that use a dashboard of measures to provide a comprehensive picture of performance, we need to allow and enable accountability systems that create dashboards of indicators for all key decisions (student placement, promotion, graduation; teacher evaluation, tenure, dismissal; school recognition, interven- tion). (2014, p. 105)
Darling-Hammond also asserts, “Teacher evaluation processes are connected to teacher growth and development rather than puni- tive accountability” (2017, p. 16). Yet as I read through her books, while I find many referenc- es to student assessments, references to teacher assessment are rare.
Danielson’s Framework for Teaching makes multiple references to the word “assessment” within the domains of planning, environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. However, Danielson makes no references to the word “evaluation.” (Te Danielson Group, 2017b). Ironically, the description of the frame- work on the Danielson Group website makes multiple references to the word evaluation, but no references to assessment. In other words, the framework was created with the intention to focus on assessment, but it is marketed as a tool for evaluation.
Federal legislation concerning assessment and evaluation match up with what I read in works by Darling-Hammond and Danielson. Upon reading over federal education legislation in- cluding the No Child Leſt Behind Act (2002), the Race to the Top competitive funding program (2009), and the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015), three things became apparent:
1. Te word “evaluation” almost always refers to teachers and school leaders, not students. 2. Te word “assessment” almost always
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