Oregon Teachers Find Evaluations Most Helpful When They Include Actionable Feedback and Multiple Measures

The national findings show that the helpfulness of evaluations in improving and refining teacher practice relies on several dynamics, the most important of which is providing actionable feedback to teachers—often from observations. Additionally, evaluations are found to be most helpful when they include a variety of measures.

In Oregon, 99% of teachers report receiving an evaluation at least once every few years and 67% of teachers say they are evaluated at least once a year. Further:

• 99% of Oregon teachers say they should receive a formal evaluation at least once every few years, with 79% saying they should receive a formal evaluation at least once a year.

• 74% of Oregon teachers who are evaluated say their evaluations are extremely, very or somewhat helpful.

• 51% of teachers report their evaluations are somewhat helpful, 20% report they are very helpful and 4% extremely helpful. 26% of Oregon teachers say their evaluation is not at all helpful.

Oregon teachers report that their evaluations result in various outcomes, including:

• Receiving feedback to help refine or improve their practice (68%)
• Receiving a ranking or effectiveness score (40%)
• Identifying customized professional development opportunities (17%)
• Identifying classroom supports and resources to meet their needs (15%)
• Discussing their career path (12%)
• Affecting their salary and/or bonus (2%)

In the national analysis, the importance of actionable feedback from evaluations was reinforced among teachers who report their evaluations are not at all helpful or only somewhat helpful. These teachers were asked to share the types of changes they would make to improve their evaluation and make it more helpful. No pre-defined list was provided; teachers typed in a response and those responses were then coded and grouped into themes.

Nationally, three main themes emerged from teachers’ answers to this question:

• Desire for more feedback, especially personalized feedback
• Desire for increased fairness in evaluations
• Desire for better-qualified evaluators

There is a clear indication on the national level that evaluation systems with multiple measures (at least three or more) are more helpful than evaluations with fewer measures. In Oregon, 28% of teachers report having three or more components included in their evaluations; 72% report having fewer than three. Oregon teachers report having the following measures included in their formal reviews:

• Observations of teacher practice (93%)
• Self-evaluation or self-assessment (69%)
• School-wide measures of student growth and achievement (23%)
• Individual student-related measures of academic growth and achievement (21%)
• Student surveys designed to determine if learning is taking place (5%)
• Parent surveys (3%)

Feedback from observations outside of formal evaluations can supplement the role formal evaluations play in supporting teachers’ efforts to refine or improve their practice.

• A majority (79%) of Oregon teachers are observed outside of formal evaluations and a majority of these teachers (85%) receive feedback based on these observations.
• When all teachers in Oregon are considered, 98% say they ought to receive feedback from observations outside of formal evaluations, yet only 67% do.
• Further, while 50% of Oregon teachers say that this feedback should be an ongoing process, only 19% say it actually is ongoing.