Visit classrooms early and often, and give new tools to principals - The Boston Globe

Visit classrooms early and often, and give new tools to principals - The Boston Globe

So much is being written about teachers right now and how they are overpaid and there is no way to remove ineffective at best or poor teachers at worst.

There has to be a happy medium. Certainly there are excellent teachers and then there are less than excellent or average teachers and of course as in all professions there ineffective or even poor teachers.

Much of the legislation being passed (or about to be passed) in various states is being done (at least according to the experts) in order to make it easier to remove teachers. Kim Marshall argues in the Boston Globe that our current evaluation system is a big part of the problem.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2011/03/25/visit_classrooms_early_and_often_and_give_new_tools_to_principals/

I like many of his suggestions but wonder if is it within a principal's capabilities to accomplish what Marshall is asking. I see how long the evaluation process is for my own administrator and wonder if she could pull off the number of evaluations Marshall recommends. I certainly agree with Marshall that it would lead to a truer assessment of a teachers capabilities. I also think more assessments will lead to more accurate assessments of teachers and less of a the typical dog and pony show teachers will put on for a scheduled assessment. Advance notice of an evaluation is just silly.