Teacher Evaluation and Compensation: Maximizing Each Child's Potential

By T. Broce, S. Jeynes and J. Knight

For 50 years teacher evaluation has changed very little. How do we know? Nothing has changed for the child! What if the academic administrators’ main focus is serving and leading each teacher on behalf of the child? What if we adopted Jesus’ own manner of intentional conversation? And maximize children’s outcomes. This is a how-to book. Evaluate and compensate always with the child in mind. This is how.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385008841

T. Broce

As experienced educators, administrators, and consultants Terri, Simon and Jenny study the craft of the teacher through the eyes of Scripture, research and experience. They are consultants at Christian School Management, a 501(c)3 dedicated to bringing hope to the Christian School Movement. They work in tens of Christian schools along with their CSM colleagues learning from them and implementing excellent leadership / management practices that sustain and inspire all who work with them. Contact them at [e-mail]. Find out more about CSM at christianschoolmanagement.org.

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Copyright © 2023 T. Broce, S. Jeynes, and J. Knight.

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WestBow Press rev. date: 10/19/2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

To Our Academic Administrators

Why This Book Was Written

HOW TO DO TEACHER EVALUATION

The Teacher’s Professional Learning Journey

Journey

The Professional Conversation Cycle

The Three Conversation Practices

Practice One: The Conversation Is Ongoing

Practice Two: The Conversation Is Focused

Practice Three: The Conversation Is Encouraging

Evaluating the New-to-Teaching Teacher (1)

Thoughts for the Academic Administrator

Imagining the Creation of a Professional Learning Journey Objective

Evaluating the New-to-the-School Teacher (2)

Thoughts for the Academic Administrator

Imagining the Creation of a Professional Learning Journey Objective

Evaluating the Experienced Teacher (3)

Thoughts for the Academic Administrator

Imagining the Creation of a Professional Learning Journey Objective

The (Digital) Learning Journey Portfolio

Administrative Support in the Learning Journey

Writing Objectives

Example of a Professional Learning Journey Objective

The Conversation and the Concept of ‘Jagged’

Jagged Line Profile

The Conversation and Who Gets the Most Attention?

TEACHER EVALUATION: THE ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATOR

Why Do You Want to Be an Academic Administrator?

Administrators Shouldn’t Teach Children

The New Job Description for Academic Administrators

An Advertisement to Attract the Ideal Academic Administrator

Preparing for Teacher Evaluation

Process to Arrive at the Portrait of the Child and of the Teacher

Types of Administrator Conversations

Conversation Is a Learned Skill

Listening Conversations

Social Conversations

Peer Conversations

Facilitated Conversations

Yucky Conversations

The Shortest Conversations

Technology Conversations

The Center of Evaluation: Observation

The Center of Evaluation: Scripting

The Center of Evaluation: Scripting Follow-up

Face-to-Face: Generative Questions

The Center of Evaluation: The Reflective Teacher

Connecting to the Children: A Value Add

The Center of Evaluation: I / We / Leadership / Child

The Four Professional Learning Journey Steps

Visiting the Classroom: Using the Time When not Scripting

Innovating Teachers Versus Troublemaking Teachers

The Administrator and Time

The Academic Administrator: Leadership Practices That Create Change

Administrators Leave; Teachers Stay; the Initiative Syndrome

TEACHER EVALUATION: PROFESSIONAL GROWTH

What Is Christian Professional Growth?

I Am Committed to Growing!

One Size Fits One

Reflecting and Ownership

The Teacher as Learner

Deliberate/ Indeliberate Learning

A Culture of Reflection

The Christian Professional Learning Community

The Christian Professional Learning Community: A Definition

The Jagged Community

The Strategic Academic Plan

The Professional Growth Budget

TEACHER EVALUATION: BUREAUCRACY

If We Evaluate Teachers, Are We Willing to Fire Them?

The Toxic Teacher

When It’s Not ‘Firing’ But Still Appropriate to Let Them Go

The Christian Corrective Action Process

Example: Christian Corrective Action Process

Onboarding and Induction

The Before-School-Year Teacher Preparation

Day One to Day Three

Day Four to Day Seven

Day Eight and Day Nine

Day 10

Some Ways Schools Waste Teachers’ Time

Some Ways Schools Must Make Time for Teachers

Moving from 10-Month to 12-Month Contracts

Scheduling that Supports the CPLC

The Annual Calendar

How Many Academic Administrators Do You Need?

COMPENSATION: CHALLENGING EACH TEACHER

ON BEHALF OF EVERY CHILD

Introduction

The Pragmatic Argument for Thinking About Compensation

A More Satisfying but More Challenging Argument: John 3:17

A Very Brief Compensation History with Comments

Before You Begin: Financial Planning

Before You Begin: Culture and the Documents

The Christian School Mission Statement

The Seven Characteristics of a Christian School Mission Statement

The Christian School Portrait of the Child: The Timothy List

Process

The Portrait of the Teacher

The Meat of It: Basic Professional Responsibilities

The Heart of It: Higher Order Professional Responsibilities

Process: First Me

Process: Then We

Process: The Leadership Team

Process: The Teacher Professional Growth, Conversation and Compensation Committee (TPGCCC)

Process: TPGCCC First Draft

Process: TPGCCC Qualifiers

Band Creation

Process: TPGCCC Second Draft

Process: TPGCCC Examples

Band Recapitulation

The Master Leader Teacher (Band Four)

Thanking the Committee

The Professional Growth, Conversation, and Compensation Committee

Are There Any Other Qualifications Necessary to Move from Band to Band?

How Much Will We Pay Teachers in Each Band?

How Will the Academic Administrator’s Job Change?

Process: The Compensation Conversation

Meeting with Teachers to Discuss Band Placement for Each Criterion

Placing Teachers in the Bands

Note About New Teachers (to the School and the Profession)

The Contract for Teachers

Calendar: An Example

Change

Fear Is Part of the Change Process

The Status Quo Is Not an Option!

Everyone Hasn’t Bought In

The Emotional Roller-Coaster

Verbal and Written Communication Don’t Match

Moving from Second Order Change to First Order Change

Parameters of Success

Does This New System Work?

THE VISIBLE CHILD

The Child and the Adult

Making Each Child Visible

Human and Social Capital: The Child’s Point of View

Ways to Empower the Child to Own Their Own Education

From Well-Rounded to Jagged: Empowering the Child Who Is

The Child Owns Their Own Education: The Culture of Reflection

Mastery Transcript Consortium: High School Example

From One / Two Dimensional Teacher Comment to the Multi-Dimensional Child’s Learning Journey Portfolio

How Schools Waste Children’s Time

PHILOSOPHY

Paradigm Shifts

The Paradox of Teacher Evaluation

Thinking about Teacher Evaluation

Evaluation as Performance

Healthy Faculty Culture

CSM’s Healthy Faculty Culture: Thoughts

Human Capital, Social Capital, and Conversation

The Idea of (Above) Average

Appendix 1: Public Schools and Merit-Based Pay

North Carolina Pathways to Excellence for Teaching Excellence

Merit Pay in Canada

Charter Schools

Teacher Advancement Program (TAP)

Some Thoughts

Appendix 2: Three Calendars

Professional Growth, Conversation, and Compensation Calendar

The Calendar: An Example for Teachers

Sample Calendar for First Three Contract Years

Appendix 3: Band Placement Considerations

Professional Growth, Conversation, and Compensation Band Process and Requirements

Band Placement Examples

Appendix 4: Additional Qualifications for Moving to the Next Band

Appendix 5: The Cord Principle

Appendix 6: A Limited Bibliography

Appendix 7: Daily Journaling – a Reflective Process that Facilitates Learning (from Senge)

From Learning Journals by Micah Fierstein (Senge et al. (2000) Schools That Learn New York: Doubleday)

Appendix 8: Glossary

Appendix 9: The Child Principle

For Scripture says,

"Do not muzzle an ox while it is

treading out the grain,"

and the worker deserves his wages.

(1 Timothy 5:18)

This book was written collaboratively by Terri Broce, Simon Jeynes, and Jenny Knight.

We want to thank everyone who unknowingly contributed to thinking about these subjects – every school that we have been to and every child, teacher, and administrator it has been our privilege to meet and learn from. In particular, we want to acknowledge Legacy Christian Academy, MN with its Head of School Jake Mulvihill and staff, and Des Moines Christian School, IA with its Head of School Cade Lambert and staff. These two schools are leading the Christian School Movement through their courage and commitment to doing what is best for the children whose lives they steward. Their excellence and commitment to growth in education gives honor to God every day and in every classroom. They have inspired us, and this book could not have been written without their example. Of course, they nor anyone else whom we know is responsible for any infelicities in this book. The responsibility for those is entirely ours.

It is a fitting thing to give the last word to Jesus who inspires us and CSM every day.

People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Luke 18:15)

TO OUR ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATORS

Who is an academic administrator? You might be the Principal, Head of School, Division Leader, Director of Learning – the title doesn’t matter. What does matter is the function you fill as academic administrator. As such, your primary commitment, what comes first for you, is supporting, growing, and evaluating teachers.

We want to support you to achieve great mission delivery. We want you to be a leader who admires teachers. We want to lead you to deep relationships with those teachers so they can inspire kids. We want you to believe that each child is amazing, truly imago Dei.

To do that, we ask you to consider potentially doing your job very differently – without getting distracted. As Warren Buffett says: The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything. You need to say no to almost everything, and yes to the one thing that matters –growing your teachers.

This is a paradigm shift in the way we do our work as academic administrators and, at the same time, changes the way in which teachers do their work. We have to change the paradigm because the old paradigm is collapsing – teachers and administrators are working as hard and harder than previous generations, and being compensated poorly. The demands posed by the child are increasing; the skills of the teacher must increase; there are still only 24 hours in the day.

The purpose of this book is to help you become:

• A highly effective academic administrator

• A supporter of teachers who holds them accountable for the children in their care

• A co-leader of a Christian Professional Learning Community (CPLC)

• A recruiter and retainer of the most excellent teachers

and to:

• Radically change the experience of the child

• Ensure each child succeeds within a joyful learning environment

The purpose of this book is to provoke change in the way things are to the way things ought to be. We want your school to be a shalom school.

Note: Throughout this book, CSM typically uses the word child rather than student to remind us continually that we are working in the lives of 6, and 10, and 14, and 18-year-olds. The word student can easily obscure the vulnerability and tenderness of our children.

Note: if you have a print copy of this book, please ask us to send you a digital version! The digital version is for the school – you can copy and / or send it to anyone in the school. CSM was begun in order to serve the Christian school community, and this is part of our service. We ask you not to send the digital version to people outside your school. It is copyrighted material and we have to make our development and publishing costs back!

WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN

I have often wondered why people, when driving, seldom get carsick. It’s only passengers, especially in the back seat, who experience motion sickness. The answer, it turns out, may come from aviation. Pilots almost never succumb to motion sickness while actually flying, apparently because they are engaged in a personally meaningful task. If the pilot decides to push the automatic flight control system (AFCS) button, it can be tempting to mentally disengage. Indeed, it can be easier for a pilot to become airsick if he or she is not really flying the plane.

The lurking danger of the AFCS effect is not diminished by the presence of a copilot. Copilots are almost always present in commercial planes where passengers are onboard. Without AFCS engaged, the level of cognitive engagement experienced by the two pilots shifts back and forth, with each of them taking turns flying the plane. I often think this copilot metaphor applies to the world of classrooms, teachers, and children.

Visit many of our schools and it is likely that you will see classrooms where many children, who should be actively engaged, have decided to press their own personal AFCS buttons. They are simply along for the ride. In these classrooms, the singular person at the controls is the teacher; the child has little purpose, no reason to remain engaged. This novocaine environment is made even more intellectually numbing when the teacher has pressed the AFCS also. Now nobody is engaged and the plane is flying mindlessly to no particular destination. If learning requires some degree of sustained motivation and engagement, then it will not be revealed in this classroom. But what would happen if nobody pressed the AFCS button? This is where we begin to learn not just how to fly, but to soar. This is the window into the world imagined by Richard Bach in his timeless tale, Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was not like the other gulls. His love for flying went far beyond what ordinary gulls possessed. For his friends, flying was merely a means to an end, a way to get food. But for Jonathan, flying was art, art that filled his heart, mind, and soul. He pursued his passion for flying with what his community labeled as reckless abandon. But to Jonathan, to stop learning how to fly higher and faster and with greater agility was akin to having to stop breathing. He refused to live life on automatic. He knew his purpose, it gave his learning meaning, and he yearned to share his insights with his fellow gulls. In time, he transcended the ordinary and evolved into a legendary teacher.

Jonathan never, ever pushed the AFCS button.

What would happen if each child in your care was in the copilot’s seat of their own education, at the controls of his or her own learning and teaching? What would be the metaphorical equivalent of a horizon line, a frame of reference that would provide some sense of physical, emotional, and cognitive stability?

To answer this question, let’s refer back to the two critical ingredients that prevent pilots and drivers from becoming motion sick – engagement and purpose. What would the horizon look like if the child determined it? What evidence would the child’s brain choose to demonstrate learning? Would boredom be possible? What kind of teacher would be a copilot and coach and mentor to support and instruct, and hold that child accountable to that horizon line?

As educators, we are trained to be the only one in the driver’s seat, to determine the content, the skills, the outcomes, the time frame, the measurements, and the speed. Let’s be schools where children and educators are co-owners of the learning-teaching environment. These are schools where a child’s mind, heart, and spiritual growth are respected and honored. These are children that flourish.

As administrators, we want our children to flourish. We also walk a fine line between tradition and innovation. We know the research around professional growth that translates into learning growth for children, and yet we organize a one-size-fits-all training experience for teachers. We know that the traditional stepladder salary scale does not impact the growth of the child, and yet we continue to use it. We know that the quality of the teacher is the critical factor in each child’s life, and yet our own administrative calendars are dominated by distractors rather than time in classrooms learning from and coaching teachers toward growth for themselves – and therefore growth for each child.

This book is written on behalf of the child. For you, the courageous academic administrator, it is written for you to deepen your relationship with your teachers. It is each teacher who will inspire each child to look to their own horizon and soar.

Jenny Knight, Co-author

HOW TO DO TEACHER

EVALUATION

THE TEACHER’S PROFESSIONAL

LEARNING JOURNEY

This book is about teacher evaluation and compensation. We start with the first major concept in teacher evaluation – the idea of the Professional Learning Journey (PLJ). It is not, on the surface, complicated.

1. The PLJ denotes the teacher’s vocation-long pursuit of excellence, the Learning Journey.

2. The center of the Journey is the Conversation between each teacher and the academic administrator.

3. The academic administrator carries out an ongoing learning Conversation with each teacher about each child.

4. The Conversation has intentionality based on objectives determined together with the teacher and identified in the teacher’s Professional Learning Journey.

5. The purpose of the Conversation is for teachers to grow on behalf of children.

6. The Conversation is a true two-way conversation. This Conversation is evaluation.

Contract renewal is assumed unless the academic administrator takes complete control and the relationship becomes directive, not based on the ongoing Conversation, i.e., a one-way communication.

Journey

The teacher’s Journey is vocation and career. It is a daily walk, a monthly walk, a perennial walk. It is both alone and within community. It is the only way for a teacher to live and grow and succeed through their 40-year-long vocation. Every teacher must be willing to walk this Journey.

The word journey is deliberate. During his three-year ministry, Jesus walked over 3,000 intentional miles on his journey to Jerusalem. Each teacher also has an intentional walk.

Through a long career, with very little if any upward mobility, the teacher must constantly find sustenance along the way. If teaching were a 40-year journey of unmitigated joy and accomplishment, there would be little need for support or focus on growth, let alone reflection and evaluation. But the reality of teaching is that it is highly challenging, with no certain outcomes, persistent doubt about children’s progress, and obstacles to success that often seem never-ending, endlessly changing. There is no straightforward path to ensuring that every child learns and fulfills their potential.

David in Psalm 6 puts his situation in words that we as teachers can sometimes, even often, relate to: I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes (Psalm 6:6).

And Scripture understands the need for refreshment and renewal and growth. One of the Servant Songs of Isaiah puts it this way: The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. (Isaiah 50:4). In joy (I succeeded) and in sorrow (I seem to have failed), but actually it’s just a journey, the Professional Learning Journey.

Let’s look at this through three lenses:

1. A beginning teacher

2. An experienced teacher new to the school

3. A teacher with more than one year’s experience at the school

Each teacher is engaged in a Professional Learning Journey that speaks to their own growth as educators, their engagement with their colleagues, and their commitment to the school’s mission.

This Journey is not about being above average; it is about personally and professionally becoming more effective, year after year, in the life of each child.

The Professional Conversation Cycle

For CSM then, evaluation is a process, not an event or a series of events. It is an ongoing professional conversation between the academic administrator and the teacher. The very simple model provided here shows the process that the conversation illuminates.

The teacher must identify:

• Where they are in their own teaching Journey.

• Determine where to go next and put that into a plan (the Professional Learning Journey).

• Walk that Journey together with colleagues and the academic administrator.

• Learn from and contribute to the other teachers (the Christian Professional Learning Community).

• And then every year reflect on where they are again and the progress they have made.

Then walk through the process again.

It’s important that evaluation not be reduced to a set of forms. It is always an organic, evolving, and generative professional conversation that is both ambitious and accountable.

My%20Professional%20Learning%20Journey.jpg

THE THREE CONVERSATION PRACTICES

Conversation is the holistic teacher / academic administrator communication network around professional practice on behalf of children. It is the driving force in each teacher’s growth.

As the academic administrator, we cannot pretend that we have a relationship with any of our teachers when we are not in conversation with them. The conversation is the relationship (cf. Susan Scott: Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success in Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time). And the key to the conversation is intentionality.

This Conversation (upper case) takes place in many different types and forms of conversation (lower case) and, while these types and forms flow into and out of each other, each has a function and an outcome. We don’t know if Jesus ever had casual conversations as he walked the roads of Israel and Samaria. What we do know is that his conversations with his disciples were highly intentional. In Mark 4, we are told that he told his disciples everything – nothing was hidden from them. These practices have already been modeled by Jesus with his disciples. Undoubtedly, you have and continue to develop your own style and practices.

Practice One: The Conversation Is Ongoing

Warning: the moment the Conversation stops, the relationship gets worse.

Thoughts: the academic administrator in the office is not doing anything mission related – just administrating, providing issue management, and dealing with conflict. These are all important and have their place, but they are not moving your school or division forward or supporting your teachers in excellent mission delivery to children. This approach just keeps you and your school or division in the same place. When you are out of your office talking with teachers – as they come in at the beginning of the day, in breaks, at lunch, in corridor chats – you are supporting your teachers. You are not there to have casual conversation. That’s for your friends and family. This is Professional Conversation.

• How did that class go yesterday?

• You were looking for materials yesterday, I noticed. Do you have everything you need?

• You did a great job with Natalie yesterday when you redirected her to productive work. How is she doing?

• You seem deep in thought. How’s your Journey going?

• Would you like me to pray with you?

• What did you get out of that article you were reading?

Practice Two: The Conversation Is Focused

Warning: Conversation that is not focused is not the best use of professional time.

Thoughts: Remember your Mission and the elements of the Portrait of the Child continually. These elements are the qualities you have identified, identifying what we desire for our children. Always have them in your mind and heart. They focus your ongoing Conversation. Desire is a powerful verb. Our desire drives our motivation. Your Portrait of the Child is your constant purpose. Here is an example from one of our schools:

• Servant-Hearted Leader

• Critical Thinker and Effective Communicator

• Accomplished Learner

• Passionate Apprentice of Christ

By training your own conversation to have focus on the Portrait, you train your teachers to think in the same way. They can talk and think in many ways. They might all be good. Only some of them matter. This matters. This desire. That matters.

Of course, the Portrait of the Child is a specific subset of the mission. Keep that in your mind and heart all the time as well. For example, the mission of Des Moines Christian School, Iowa, is to equip minds and nurture hearts to impact the world for Christ. Their Portrait includes the elements noted above. Focus the conversations.

• Hey, Brian is an effective communicator. How is he doing being a servant leader?

• That lesson yesterday – and I only saw 10 minutes of it! – what an impact for Christ you are having. How did you come up with such a great idea? What will the children do with it?

• How can you use your own reading to model being an accomplished learner?

• Would you be open to Brianna coming and watching you do that reflection exercise? We are all apprentices to each other! And your children reflect so naturally now – it’s obviously a habit.

• I’m curious to hear how Jade’s parents responded to your phone call about what Jade did yesterday as a critical thinker.

Don’t be worried if it seems to become repetitive. You have to go through the repetition to get from new to cliché to profound. Unless you and everyone else is willing to go through the cliché stage, you can’t get to profound. Never weary of your mission/Portrait!

Practice Three: The Conversation Is Encouraging

Warning: you have authority. What you say matters.

Thoughts: we are encouraged by the Holy Spirit (Acts 9), and the Apostles are constantly encouraging each other and the followers of the Way (cf. Acts 15:32; Romans 1:12). In Romans 12, encouragement is a gift of the Spirit. As a servant leader, you have the gift of encouragement. If you don’t, pray continuously for it to be evident in your life as an academic administrator. The ongoing Conversation is all about building up your sisters and brothers as they go about their daily work. Encouragement that is useful is specific. General attaboys are at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive.

• You really chose words well when you called Louis to account yesterday. I really heard both the rebuke and the encouragement. Thank you.

• I really admire your mentorship of Rebekah. She has told me how you are always available to speak with her. Thank you.

• What would you do differently in that situation yesterday? You reflect on your own practice really well. Use that skill here.

• I know it has been a hard time recently and the absence of three children hasn’t helped. You are not in this on your own. Please tell me how I can support you.

If growth is a way of living, then the Conversation is a way of connecting. It includes the skills of listening and engaging through speaking.

EVALUATING THE NEW-TO-TEACHING TEACHER (1)

A teacher brand new to the profession requires significant guidance. Even someone who has just graduated from an education program still has very little idea of what it means to be with children day to day over the course of a year. Teachers need intensive and specifically guided support in order to come up to speed as quickly as possible. Of course, you could employ the sink-or-swim methodology, but the learning curve is going to be shallow and the possibility of drowning higher. It is surprising that this is still the most common method used in our schools today. The teacher who is new to teaching needs to:

• Establish excellent classroom relationships with children

• Establish excellent parent communications

• Follow the curriculum

Thoughts for the Academic Administrator

1. These teachers need time. They should have a reduced teaching load for the first two years. This is obviously harder for elementary homeroom teachers. For those in that position, reduced or eliminated responsibilities outside the classroom would provide the time needed. If this is impossible (presumably for financial reasons), don’t despair. The rest of our recommendations will still be applicable. Note that facilitating this is a great strategic use of operations reserves. Try not to let finances impede the acculturation of the new professional.

2. New teachers need a mentor. Uncover teacher-leaders who desire to support and encourage. We call these people teacher-mentors. Often, they are referred to in the literature as veterans, but that’s not the critical element. Most critical is the mentor’s ability to be welcoming, supportive, a very good teacher, spiritually mature.

a. Summer before beginning: initial meeting/s to get to know each other and begin relationship building.

b. Orientation: accompanying the teacher through elements of orientation and being available to answer questions and provide direction.

c. Throughout the year, ensure that the teacher knows the calendar and provides heads-up on expectations e.g., around report card writing.

d. Fall: formal weekly meetings to reflect, pray together, just talk.

i. Mentor visits the teacher’s classroom weekly and uses the observation to inform the weekly conversation.

ii. Spend a professional day with the mentor and / or grade-level colleagues (responsibilities covered by a guest teacher).

e. Winter / spring: monthly meetings to reflect, pray together, just talk.

i. Mentor visits the teacher’s classroom once a month and uses the observation to inform the monthly conversation.

ii. Teacher visits the mentor classroom (and other teachers’ classrooms) once a week to observe excellent practice.

f. End of