Assessing Teachers

Goal setting can be divided into four main parts, identify the need, develop a plan, implement the plan, and finally evaluate the plan.  Each of the four steps is vital to the plans success.  Although assessment is often thought of as a dirty word it is essential, how do we know if our plan is successful if we do not evaluate?  Teachers in the State of Texas are expected to meet the SBEC standards regarding technology, in order to know if they have meet them an assessment is necessary.   When one looks at the Standards it becomes apparent that assessment will need to be administered in a variety of formats, both formal and informal.  The STaR chart is an assessment of both the school and the teacher’s current level of performance in reference to technology; this is a tool that could be used as part of the assessment process.  Additionally, teachers should have at least the knowledge that he students exiting 8^th grade are expected to possess, teachers could take the 8^th grade technology assessment to measure this.  I think it would take a battery of assessments to evaluate individual teacher’s current level of performance accurately.  When the data is collected then the real work would begin, how do we address any needs that are identified?   There should be campus technology leadership in place to implement a plan of ongoing technology education and integration.   Since technology changes every day, the evaluation process of teachers, students and other assets should be ongoing.