Using
Data Sources Other Than the Full Class Observation
to Give a 360-Degree Assessment of Teacher Performance
(1
day)
Prerequisite: The competencies taught in Effectively
Observing, Developing, Assessing, Documenting and Conferencing About
Classroom Teaching
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Supervision
and Evaluation in a Standards-Based (Mastery-Based) Environment
I (2 days)
Prerequisite: The competencies taught in
Effectively
Observing, Developing, Assessing, Documenting and Conferencing About
Classroom Teaching
By the end
of the workshop, administrators will be able to use the district's
supervision and evaluation document to develop and assess teachers’
ability to
- develop and implement classroom rules and routines that maximize
the level of respectful, on-task student behavior
- develop and implement a system of rewards and consequences for
reinforcing respectful, on-task behavior
- obtain students' attention at the start of the lesson, after
group and partner activities, after interruptions and after student
attention has deteriorated
- develop individual behavior plans for those students who do
not respond to the classroom management plan
- write objectives
for a class or unit in language that describes what the students
will know and be able to do after the teaching is finished
- write objectives
for a class or unit in language that enables them to readily assess
whether or not the objectives have been mastered
- choose
assessments that measure student mastery of the objectives
- choose
activities that maximize student mastery of the objectives
- use activators
to show students how the content and the skills taught in the
lesson connect to their previous learning
- use
an agenda to tell students what they will do during the lesson
- use lesson
objectives to create a context that leads to deeper understanding
and longer retention of independent facts as they appear in the
lesson
- create
increased motivation and retention by explaining to students why
the information and skills taught in the lesson are relevant to
them
- use summarizers
to increase student mastery and retention of the knowledge and
skills taught in the lesson
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Supervision
and Evaluation in a Standards-Based (Mastery-Based) Environment
II (2 days)
Prerequisite: Supervision and Evaluation in a
Standards-Based (Mastery-Based) Environment I
By the end of
the workshop, administrators will be able to use the district's
supervision and evaluation document to develop and assess teachers’
ability to
- describe the various purposes for assessment
- define the similarities and differences between summative and
formative assessments
- define the similarities and differences between product and
performance assessments
- create teacher-made product and performance assessments that
evaluate the level of student mastery on the stated objectives
both formatively and summatively
- write rubrics and criteria sheets that assess student products
and performances on those concepts that are difficult to quantify
for assessment
- implement
differentiated instructional strategies
- plan lessons
that can flexibly provide re-teaching, practice and extension
as needed and manage differentiated activities in a single lesson
- explain
the key aspects of the following theories of intelligence
- innate,
single-entity intelligence
- learnable
intelligence
- multiple
intelligences
- attribution
of intelligence
- implement
classroom strategies that move students toward the belief that
success is due more to effort and the acquisition of strategies
than to innate ability and luck
- increase
student motivation by helping them equate success with effort
and the acquisition of effective strategies
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Supervising
and Evaluating the Newly Hired (Probationary) Teacher
(1 day)
Prerequisite: The competencies taught in Effectively
Observing, Developing, Assessing, Documenting and Conferencing About
Classroom Teaching
This workshop
teaches administrators the techniques for effectively supervising
teachers new to the district. Administrators learn how to maximize
the effectiveness of mentor teachers in helping newly hired teachers
succeed. They learn to lead building support teams that help ensure
the success of these teachers.
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Supervising
and Evaluating the Unsatisfactory and Barely Satisfactory
Teacher
and Progressive Discipline (5 days)
Prerequisite: The competencies taught in Effectively
Observing, Developing, Assessing, Documenting and Conferencing About
Classroom Teaching or a similar course.
Fortunately, only about 2% of the tenured teachers (professional
teacher status in MA) in most districts perform at an unsatisfactory
level. A slightly greater percentage of teachers are barely satisfactory.
The overall percentage of low-performing teachers is low, but have
you ever considered the financial, educational and morale costs
to your district of having even one unsatisfactory professional
status teacher whom you cannot either supervise and evaluate to
satisfactory performance or remove from the profession? Have you
also considered the costs of retaining a satisfactory teacher who
is just barely meeting the district standards?
Students in
your district lose valuable learning time if they must spend a year
in a classroom with substandard teaching. Parents and community
members lose confidence and withdraw their support when they believe
your district lacks the quality control procedures to ensure a satisfactory
opportunity for the children in every classroom. The morale of hard-working
and high-performing teachers is undermined when they see poor performance
allowed because the district is unable to require satisfactory performance
through effective supervision and evaluation. In some cases, they
see poor performance “rewarded” with smaller class loads,
teaching assistants added to the class and/or transfers to less
visible and less demanding jobs. Your district must tolerate poor
performance or pay large sums to buy out or hide unsatisfactory
performers if you are unable to improve or remove these teachers.
“Supervising
and Evaluating the Unsatisfactory and Barely Satisfactory Teacher”
is designed to help districts avoid the above-mentioned costs of
retaining (without significantly improving) unsatisfactory or barely
satisfactory tenured teachers by training the administrators in
effective methods for evaluating those teachers. Dr. Ribas spent
six years working with teachers, teachers’ association officers,
principals, superintendents, and others on developing this training
workshop and on writing the book Teacher Evaluation That Works!!
During and since that time, Ribas Associates consultants trained
and coached administrators on more than one hundred evaluations
of unsatisfactory tenured teachers and numerous evaluations of barely
satisfactory tenured teachers in a variety of districts. Half of
the unsatisfactory teachers improved to satisfactory performance
and continued in the profession. Unfortunately, the other half failed
to improve and left the profession.
At the end
of the four days, administrators will be able to
- implement
techniques for the supervision and evaluation of unsatisfactory
or barely satisfactory tenured teachers
- explain
the impact of the law and how to work within the law during low-performing
teacher evaluations, including the concepts of due process,
just cause, duty of fair representation, harassment and the
Weingarten right
- observe,
verify, document and record direct and indirect data accumulated
both within and outside of the classroom
- work with
a second evaluator and/or supervisor during a low-performing teacher
evaluation
- write and
implement improvement plans (or enhanced goals) for low-performing
teachers
- implement
and document the steps of progressive discipline
- conference
with teachers about low performance and misconduct
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Coaching
Seminars on Difficult Evaluations
(5 days)
Prerequisite: Supervising and Evaluating
the Unsatisfactory and Barely Satisfactory Teacher and Progressive
Discipline
Research indicates that evaluators fail to address low performance
and staff discipline situations because of the lack of coaching
and individual support that is required to address these complex
issues. In these confidential seminars, groups of no more than 5
administrators meet for three hours to confidentially discuss with
Dr. Ribas or Dr. Ash the unsatisfactory or barely satisfactory teachers
they are evaluating and other progressive discipline issues. Administrators
are coached on when and how to talk with teachers about ineffective
teaching and problematic behavior. The administrators’ documentation
is reviewed and edited to ensure that it contains clear statements
and maximum procedural compliance within their district’s
evaluation document. These seminars are held five times during the
school year at critical times during the evaluation process.
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Strategic
Planning
For a school district to be successful in meeting both the spirit
and the requirements of NCLB and the district’s own aspirations,
a key component to have in place is a viable strategic plan. The
strategic plan will be the umbrella under which all district initiatives
will unfold. In developing and monitoring this long-range blueprint
for the district, the consultant ensures that representatives from
the entire school community are involved. Essentially, the strategic
planning process involves the following steps: organizing for the
process (pre-planning); developing the plan itself (including developing
an understanding of the present culture and developing guiding beliefs,
mission, goals and objectives and vision); sharing the plan widely;
action planning to achieve targeted objectives; and evaluating the
progress made on an annual basis. Steady progress can be achieved
when a district functions as a community of learners, aligning its
school improvement plans, professional development plan, technology
plan, and district budget through a thoughtfully crafted strategic
plan.
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Interest-Based
Bargaining (IBB)
The Interest-Based Bargaining training program was developed to
provide an alternative to "traditional" collective bargaining
and typically consists of one or two sessions. Participants work
on their own and in teams during the training. A number of exercises
and bargaining simulations keep the participants actively involved.
The decision as to whether or not the parties will use this model
of negotiations is left until after the training is completed.
The process of ensuring that the parties communicate effectively
and efficiently is accomplished by sharpening the following skills:
active listening, understanding our emotional filters, common obstacles
to listening, the art of dialogue and discussion, inquiry and reflection,
suspending assumptions, communicating during the decision-making
process, placing blame, risk taking, effective group decision-making
strategies, improving relationships, consensus building and synergism.
Next, we begin to create a team-learning climate of trust and
openness by taking a critical look at bargaining by having the
participants share their perceptions of what happened in the last
two or three rounds of bargaining. The purpose of this exercise
is to deal with lingering prior issues and concerns that may have
been an impediment to productive negotiations, so that as we enter
the new round of negotiations, the participants will focus on the
future rather than the past.
We then introduce the “elements” of the Interest-Based
Bargaining process: identifying issues, telling the stories, stating
and clarifying interests, exploring options with brainstorming
techniques, jointly developing standards of legitimacy, reaching
consensus and committing to options. After introducing the elements
of IBB, the participants will be involved in bargaining simulations
in which they will practice the IBB process. The parties will debrief
the bargaining simulation so that everyone can demonstrate that
they have learned the process.
At the conclusion of the training, the parties will caucus to
decide whether or not they wish to proceed with the IBB process.
If the parties agree to proceed with the IBB process, then a consultant
is available to serve as facilitator. We then establish the ground
rules, identify the issues, give an overview of the issues, group
the issues in categories, establish the meeting calendar and begin
the bargaining process.
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District-Wide
Teacher Supervision and Evaluation That Works
(1
day)
This is a workshop for superintendents, human resources directors
and/or administrators responsible for district-wide supervision
and evaluation. It includes an overview of the structures needed
to have effective district-wide teacher evaluation. The workshop
explains how a district can develop effective programs for training
and coaching teacher evaluators and assessing the district’s
evaluation documents. Participants study actual examples of the
techniques used by districts in several states.
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Evaluating
the Evaluators
This workshop is for superintendents, high school principals and
other administrators responsible for supervising and evaluating
the administrators who evaluate teachers. It explains the techniques,
documents, procedures and performance standards a district needs
to effectively supervise and evaluate the administrators in the
district who supervise and evaluate teachers.
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Administrator
and School District Consulting
File
Cabinet Assessment of District-Wide Supervision and
Evaluation Observation Write-Ups and Evaluation Write-Ups
The evaluations
and the accompanying observations completed by the district’s
evaluators are read and assessed for their level of inter-rater
reliability, effective communication of judgments on the district’s
performance standards and the inclusion of impact statements that
indicate to teachers how their teaching impacts student growth and
achievement. Using a list of criteria developed by Ribas Associates,
each document is assessed to determine its successful implementation
of the criteria for effective observation and evaluation write-ups.
The superintendent and each evaluator receive a graded criteria
sheet for the evaluator. A set of recommendations for improvement
is provided for each evaluator who has areas rated on the rubric
as below mastery. The superintendent also receives a composite criteria
sheet that indicates the district’s strengths and areas for
growth. The district receives recommendations for training and coaching
that will remediate the deficient areas and increase the level of
inter-rater reliability and evaluator effectiveness throughout the
district.
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Supervision
and Evaluation Training Needs Assessment
The consultant reviews the district’s supervision and evaluation
documents and contract language on supervision and evaluation prior
to conducting the needs assessment. During a full day workshop,
the consultant reviews the district’s evaluation procedures
with the administrators to increase the level of consistent implementation
of these procedures throughout the district. All administrators
are then given a questionnaire on which they indicate those areas
of supervision and evaluation for which they need the most training.
For those districts that request it, we also provide a survey document
that asks the teachers what they think of their evaluator’s
performance in specific areas of supervision and evaluation. The
information from the questionnaire and survey is collated and sent
to the superintendent with recommendations for future training.
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Assessment
of the District’s Supervision and Evaluation Documents
The consultant reviews the district’s present evaluation documents
and contract language related to supervision and evaluation and
generates questions for the superintendent and central administrative
staff related to the implementation history of these documents.
The consultant meets with the superintendent and the assistants
to discuss the questions. The consultant then meets with the district’s
evaluators to gather information related to the evaluator’s
understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the documents.
Finally, the consultant meets with a stratified sample of teachers
to gather their perceptions about the document. A report is drafted
for the superintendent describing suggestions for improving the
implementation of the document and/or the structure of the document.
The consultant has a telephone conversation with the superintendent
about the draft report prior to completing the final report.
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Development
of Supervision and Evaluation Documents
Ribas Associates consultants have had experience working with all
types of supervision and evaluation documents. All of the consultants
who develop documents have experience as teachers’ association
officers, teacher evaluators and central administrators responsible
for district-wide supervision and evaluation. Our consultants have
developed a process for developing documents that includes representation
from all of the district’s constituencies. They know where
the hot button issues exist in the process and have techniques for
moving the development committee through these difficult areas.
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Principal
Executive Coaching
Administrator trainers who have been principals and/or supervisors
of principals meet with principals at regularly scheduled meetings
and as needed in telephone consultations to provide coaching and
feedback intended to increase the principal’s effectiveness
as a school leader. The typical yearly schedule includes five or
six two-hour meetings and fifteen to twenty hours of phone consultation
and review of documents.
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Superintendent
and Assistant Superintendent Executive Coaching
Administrator
trainers who have been or currently are superintendents and/or assistant
superintendents meet with superintendents or assistent superintendents
at regularly scheduled meetings and as needed in telephone consultations
to provide coaching and feedback intended to increase the principals'
effectiveness as school leaders. The typical yearly schedule includes
6 to 8 2-hour meetings and 20 to 30 hours of phone consultation
and review of documents.
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