Teacher Evaluation in Small Private International School Part 2


In my previous post, I talked about teacher evaluation at my school and what I would assess to make it more practical. I mentioned that there were factors unique to SPiS that made implementing the types of evaluation systems described by the TNTP and NEA reports difficult, but that they were outside the scope of what my assignment required. This post discusses the factors.
The first factor is the absence of support bodies that are present in the USA. No body represent teachers, and there is no school district (SPIS often operate separate from local educational districts due to diplomatic concerns) There are networks of schools for the purpose of organizing athletic tournaments and/or pooling PD resources, but nothing collectively representing teachers. The missing levels of support mean that administrators and teachers have additional work to do, which lessens the time available to conduct meaningful teacher evaluations. Many administrators also have to perform a Marketing role as well, so you can get evaluators going for superficial, infrequent, and quick observations rather than the more time consuming work indicated by TNTP and NEA. The second factor is the small enrollment seen at many overseas schools, as there are often few teachers available to assist in teacher evaluation. The third factor is the role played by influential parents. Many parents are so influential that a negative comment about a teacher trumps all positive evaluations and can result in immediate dismissal of the teacher. Inversely, the difficulty of getting visas and work permits results in many teachers worthy of dismissal remaining due to the delays in obtaining the permits for the replacement.

One factor present in many hierarchical societies like China is the fact that you are only allowed so much room to maneuver based on your position in the hierarchy. A teacher does not rank as high as an HR Director, so the teacher has no right to criticize or engage with discussions about anything other than his/her HR situation. A group of teachers trying to discuss the procedures for including teacher evaluation data in contract negotiations would never be heard unless the order came from someone above the HR Director. Insisting on the right to discuss the matter without working through the hierarchy can get you dismissed. If your Principal is on the same level as the HR Director, then the meeting between them would mean that teachers will be allowed to state their case, but that the resolution would depend on the persuasive skills of the Principal and HR Director when speaking to those higher up.
The factors described in this post mean that the sort of comprehensive, deep teacher evaluation system envisioned by NEA and TNTP, is not really feasible for the SPIS environment without some unifying drive to bring the different schools together. At present, regional groups like the Association of China And Mongolia International Schools (ACAMIS), do not have the legal authority to dictate terms to schools. They can only serve to coordinate and facilitate what the schools want. Right now schools have no incentive to rally together to create an organizational teacher evaluation system that works for a SPIS.

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