Evaluations get mixed grade

Missouri teachers across the state are split nearly down the middle in their thoughts on the systems used to evaluate them.

After polling more than 2,500 educators, the study found 51 percent believe the evaluation is effective, accurate and fair, according to the Missouri State Teachers Association survey released this week. All the respondents were MSTA members that work in 1,200 different school buildings with 423 districts.

Central Missouri teachers made up 15.3 percent - 395 participants out of the 2,576 total teachers surveyed. The teachers represent 180 school buildings and 71 districts in the Mid-Missouri region.

The majority of the teachers work at the elementary level - with 1,134 participants - followed by high school and middle school. Sixty-five percent of the sample have more than 10 years of teaching experience and about 15 percent of the participants have less than five years experience, according to the survey.

Educators were asked if the evaluation tool was effective, accurate and fair; if they received training about the evaluation; if their administrator followed up with feedback for improvement; and if they thought their evaluator was properly trained to evaluate them.

Most of those sampled, new and veteran teachers, said they think their administrator was properly trained to evaluate them. More than half also indicated they felt adequately trained on the evaluation tool, with 720 marking they did not feel adequately trained.

Roughly half said it has been two years since their last evaluation, followed by 841 who indicated they were evaluated last school year.

In terms of effectiveness, fairness and accuracy, 1,298 liked the tool used to evaluate them - 1,220 said they didn't think it was effective, fair and accurate.

The tool most widely used, the MU Network for Educator Effectiveness, received the most negative feedback from teachers. Perceptions didn't vary by level of teaching but did by years of experience. The second least favorable tool was one provided by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with 45.6 percent marking it as ineffective, inaccurate and unfair.

TalentedEd received the most positive feedback with 62.9 percent saying it's effective and 37.1 percent saying it's not.

Teachers with 15 years or more experience were the least agreeable about their evaluation tools with 58.9 percent saying it was ineffective, followed by teachers with 10-14 years experience at 52.4 percent. Those in their first year of teaching were the largest group - 77.8 percent - noting their evaluations were fair, accurate and effective.

MSTA may use the data to inform the state Legislature and DESE to advocate for better evaluation tools, according to the survey findings.

"Where the process is working well, it is working very well, and we want to support that," MSTA Executive Director Bruce Moe said in a news release. "Where it is not working well, we need to find a way to support those teachers and districts in finding a way to better implement educator evaluations to provide meaningful and actionable feedback."