The most welcome sign that this school district continues to move farther from what the Gates Foundation wrought is news that peer evaluators will become a less-than-lamented thing of the past.
They can go back to the classroom full time or seek promotions. Some will likely apply for “teacher talent developer” positions that will incorporate both teaching and teacher-training–but no classroom evaluations, which were a source of morale problems. Only the tone deaf and the Kool Aid dispensers missed that dynamic.
It’s too bad that grant money and Gates cachet were so influential in detouring the district from a common sense approach to instructional accountability and better teacher performance. Anyone with serious teaching experience knows the difference between “peer evaluators” and “peer mentors.”
It’s more than a semantic distinction. It can be the difference between resentment/intimidation and gratitude/counsel. Taking a teacher under a wing or taking them to a pedagogic woodshed.
As for the evaluating, per se, that should be more the purview of well-chosen, properly-promoted department heads rather than some hybrid evaluators with built-in blow-back from evaluatees.