Research Task 3 Essays

Research Task 3 Essays Research Task 3 Essay Research Task 3 Essay Research Task 3 Name: Institution: Research Task 3 With the Race to the Top Initiative (RT3), Georgia has currently adopted the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) for teacher evaluation. TKES is an evaluation system widely used for evaluating the effectiveness of teachers, which allows Georgia to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers across its districts on common grounds. This further allows comparability as well as consistency of teacher performance evaluation across the districts. The system has three components that include, â€Å"Teacher Assessment on Performance Standards (TAPS), Surveys of Instructional Practice, and Student Growth and Academic Achievement,† (Barge,2012). All the components are used collectively to achieve an overall measurement for teacher effectiveness. The purpose of using this system includes performance evaluation, hiring, pre-tenured retention, granting tenure, terminating teachers and promoting amongst others. Georgia is using TKES for evaluating the effectiveness of teachers in order to e nsure the best quality education (Georgia Department of Education, 2012). The process involves the use of the three components to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers. The first component is Teachers Assessment Performance Standards. This component provides a qualitative method of evaluation that uses rubrics to assess performance of the teacher according to laid performance standards. It uses performance appraisal rubrics that rate the performance of each teacher. The rubrics define the expectations and purposes of teachers, providing an effective instructional practice (Barge, 2012). The goal of this component is ensuring continuous development and growth of teachers through monitoring, analyzing as well as applying relevant data compiled through feedback. The other component is Student Growth and Academic Achievement consisting of a student value-added measurement. It makes use of student learning objectives and achievement growth measures identified by the district. The student learning objectives are determined at each district using the SMART criteria for setting objectives with specific content and measurable grading levels. Achievement of these objectives indicates the success of a teacher, hence exceptional performance. The teachers are further required to implement strategies aimed at achieving these objectives as well as monitoring student progress towards achievement of the set objectives (Georgia Department of Education, 2012). After assessment before the start and towards the end of a term, the teachers are required to submit Student Learning Objective Forms that are completed to the evaluators. From rubrics provided in the previous component, the teachers will be graded as either exemplary, proficient, needs development an d ineffective. The final component is the Surveys of Instructional Practice that requires students to report on items experienced directly. The questions used in these surveys will consist of questions addressing four performance standards of teacher within the TAPS component. These levels include instructional strategies, challenging academic environments and a positive learning environment. The students will respond to the questions on teacher performance from their experiences within the classroom. The surveys will make use of certified specialists to conduct the surveys that will then be graded to assess the effectiveness of each teacher. As aforementioned, evaluation of teachers or the TKES in Georgia has many purposes including termination of ineffective teachers (Barge, 2012). The main purpose of an evaluation is determining the effective and ineffective teachers. Those that are ineffective in every possible way would add no value to the students considering that student achievement is heavily dependent on the teacher’s competence. Using the TKES, the termination of a teacher will follow the usual legal and due process. However, the TKES will be used to determine teachers who are incompetent and ineffective. Upon their recognition and lack of improvement, the evaluators and other members involved are supposed to sermon the teacher for a hearing considering there are legal rights involved when it comes to termination including notice. Therefore, evaluation of a teacher using the TKES can as well act as a process of identifying teachers who can be terminated due to their incompetence. Georgia has adopted this method of evaluation in order to ensure improvement of student achievement. Each component of the TKES seeks to measure the effectiveness of a teacher. It is a known fact that teacher effectiveness is extremely crucial for student achievement. Improving school performance as well as making education reforms not only requires better facilities and curriculums, but also effective teachers to implement it (Barge, 2012). Therefore, Georgia is using the TKES to differentiate between effective and ineffective teachers with the aim of improving higher academic achievement levels in its students. References Barge, J. D. (2012). The Teacher Keys Effectiveness System. Georgia Department of Education Teacher Keys Effectiveness System Fact Sheets. Georgia Department of Education. (2012). Teacher and Leader Effectiveness. Retrieved from doe.k12.ga.us/School-Improvement/Teacher-and-Leader-Effectiveness/Pages/default.aspx