By October, assistant principals and principals are visiting classrooms, teachers are adjusting instruction based on what they’re learning about students, and the daily demands of leading a school continue to compete for time and attention. Evaluation can easily get pushed aside as more immediate needs arise, yet the work we do now shapes the opportunities teachers and administrators will have to learn and improve throughout the year.
Michigan’s evaluation law reinforces that purpose. MCL 380.1249 calls for a rigorous, transparent and fair evaluation system that provides timely, constructive feedback and supports professional growth through relevant coaching, instructional support and professional development. The question is whether the evaluation practices underway in our schools are creating those opportunities.
Where Does Your Teacher Evaluation Process Stand?
At this point in the year, teachers and evaluators should have a shared understanding of the instructional practices they are working to strengthen. Classroom observations should provide evidence of those practices, and feedback conversations should help teachers make sense of what that evidence reveals.
As you review your teacher evaluation process, make sure the statutory requirements are being addressed and consider how these practices can support professional growth throughout the year.
- Individualized development plans and performance goals: Ensure probationary teachers and teachers whose most recent evaluation was less than effective have individualized development plans that include specific performance goals and recommended training. For all teachers being evaluated this year, review the performance goals established during their most recent evaluation and identify the instructional practices they will focus on strengthening this year.
- Student growth: Include student growth or student learning objectives metrics accounting for 20% of the evaluation.
- Classroom observations and feedback: Conduct at least two classroom observations of 15 minutes or more during each year a teacher is evaluated. At least one must be conducted by the evaluator. Include a review of the lesson plan, state curriculum standards and pupil engagement. Conduct a post-observation conference and provide written feedback within 30 calendar days of each observation.
- Midyear progress reports: Provide midyear progress reports for first-year probationary teachers and teachers whose most recent evaluation was less than effective. Align reports with the teacher’s individualized development plan and include performance goals for the remainder of the school year, recommended training and a written improvement plan developed in consultation with the teacher.
Those requirements provide structure, but the quality of the process depends on what happens within it.
Consider a teacher working to strengthen disciplinary literacy by creating more opportunities for students to develop, test and refine their thinking through discussion. During an observation, the principal records that four students account for all the responses while several others remain silent. That’s what was observed, but what does it tell us about student learning? Are students struggling with the content, needing more time to develop their thinking, or finding that the discussion structures limit their opportunities to contribute?
Rather than assuming limited participation reflects a lack of understanding or prescribing a solution, the principal shares the observation evidence during the post-observation conference. The teacher shares written responses showing that students who remained silent had developed thoughtful ideas but had few opportunities to contribute. Together, they identify three discussion routines to try in future lessons, each designed to help students develop an initial response, exchange ideas and refine their thinking using evidence from the discipline.
Over the next few weeks, the teacher tries the routines, and the principal returns to observe. Together, they examine which approaches broadened participation and strengthened students’ disciplinary thinking.
This is why getting into classrooms early matters. It creates time for feedback to inform instructional decisions, for teachers to try different approaches and for both teachers and evaluators to learn what those changes mean for students.
The same willingness to examine practice and make adjustments applies to us as evaluators. We don’t have to change everything at once to get better. Taking time to examine our own observation and feedback practices can help us recognize what’s making a difference for teachers and students and where we have opportunities to improve. That might mean focusing on how we collect evidence, ask questions that help teachers make sense of that evidence or return to classrooms to learn what changed. Whatever we identify, the opportunity is to work on it intentionally over the next few weeks, pay attention to what happens and make adjustments based on what we learn.
What About Your Own Evaluation?
Assistant principals and principals spend considerable time supervising and evaluating teachers, yet their own evaluation process can receive far less attention. In some cases, meaningful conversations about their performance don’t occur until spring, when decisions about contract renewal or continued employment are already being made. By then, opportunities to address concerns, strengthen practice or demonstrate improvement may be limited.
Under MCL 380.1249b, building-level administrators, including assistant principals and principals, are required to receive an annual year-end evaluation, with biennial evaluations permitted after three consecutive effective ratings. However, a change in supervisor or evaluator requires a return to annual evaluations, regardless of prior ratings.
Other statutory requirements include:
- Performance goals and training: Establish specific performance goals in consultation with your evaluator and identify recommended training to support improvement.
- Student growth: Include student growth or student learning objectives metrics accounting for 20% of the evaluation.
- Building visits and observations: Ensure your evaluator visits the school, reviews the school improvement plan and observes classrooms with you to collect evidence of how school improvement strategies are being implemented and their impact on student learning.
- Midyear progress reports: Complete a midyear progress report in each year you are evaluated. The report must include performance goals for the remainder of the school year, recommended training and a written improvement plan developed by the evaluator in consultation with you.
- Additional improvement planning: If rated developing or needing support, implement an evaluator-developed improvement plan that identifies deficiencies to be corrected and recommends professional development and other actions intended to improve your next evaluation rating.
As you attend to teacher evaluations, don’t overlook your own. If concerns about your performance exist, make sure they are addressed while there is still time to respond. The same opportunities for professional learning and growth that you create for teachers should be part of your own evaluation. Don’t wait until spring to discover that you and your evaluator had different understandings of your performance. October still provides an opportunity to initiate these conversations and make adjustments that benefit students this year.
The requirements deserve our attention. So does what they are intended to accomplish. As you consider the evaluation work underway in your building, look beyond the activities being completed to what they are producing. The goal is not simply to complete observations and provide feedback, but to use what we learn to strengthen teaching and leadership so that students have better opportunities to learn.
Additional Resource
Our Educator Evaluation Checklist provides a side-by-side reference to the statutory expectations for both teachers and administrators. It is intended to help leadership teams examine requirements alongside their local collective bargaining agreements, contracts and evaluation procedures.