5 Steps to Prep for Successful K-12 Teacher Evaluations

There are many ways to approach the K-12 teacher evaluation process. This continuous, year-long evaluation cycle often includes goal setting, mid-year reviews, end-of-year reviews, and informal conversations in between. But  ultimately, these evaluations must be valuable to teachers, beneficial to students, and efficient for busy evaluators like you. This isn’t easy to pull off.

Perhaps that’s one reason why 54 percent of K-12 education leaders plan to improve their district’s teacher evaluations in the next one to three years.¹ But what can school leaders do to make the evaluation process work for everyone?

“Best practices in evaluating teachers is to have any formal steps—like a goal-setting discussion, a year-end review, and if you have one, a mid-year review—be two-way conversations between the teacher and the evaluator,” says Amy McIntosh, PowerSchool board member and former Assistant Secretary of the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, U.S. Department of Education. “In between these formal steps, the best leaders also have lots of informal moments of feedback that include specific and immediate points of feedback, ideally more positive reinforcements than points that are critical. Frequent informal feedback allows teachers to more easily apply feedback to their daily practice, and there are fewer surprises in the formal year-end discussion.”

For a constructive evaluation cycle for you and your teachers, preparation is key. These 5 steps will help you prepare for your next formal discussion—so you and your teachers can get the most out of the meeting and set up your K-12 district for long-term success. Use this checklist as a helpful guide, and keep reading for detailed explanations of each step.

1. Establish and review teachers’ professional growth plan

At the beginning of each school year, each educator should consult their evaluator to determine professional goals and develop plans to meet those goals. Plans should use feedback from the previous evaluation cycle to help teachers grow in areas identified as needing improvement. Other goals might help teachers advance a skill, improve personal learning, or work towards a new role at your school or district.

In both formal and informal evaluations, review these plans and goals to assess an educator’s progress.

2. Gather multiple types of evidence to assess a teacher’s performance

Before meeting with teachers for a formal evaluation—like a year-end or mid-year review—take the time to collect multiple types of evidence about each teacher. Your district probably has formal agreements with teacher associations about what must be included. Usually this includes classroom observations by you and perhaps by peer reviewers or other observers. Be sure to schedule these observations throughout the year to avoid a crunch near the time for year-end formal discussions. Evidence about student progress is also often required although there are many ways to demonstrate progress.

“Student data needs to be part of teacher supervision,” says Lisa Andrejko, Ed.D., a former superintendent and PowerSchool’s Lead Strategic Education Advisor. “While rating teachers on student performance remains controversial, student growth at a minimum must be part of the teacher reflective practice. Student results are a piece of evidence that can contribute to a more holistic perspective of teacher performance and inform effectiveness levels in the rubrics.”

Using a digital assessment or insights solution can make this easy and convenient. With visual dashboards and shareable data right at your fingertips, you can use data to guide conversations and identify opportunities to help the teacher improve instruction and increase student gains.

3. Make it a two-way, interactive evaluation

To get the most out of upcoming formal evaluations, ask your teachers to provide a self-assessment and then share your own formal assessment with them. Be sure to use clear and concise language when you write so there’s no room for confusion. Exchanging these assessments before a face-to-face or virtual evaluation can make for a more constructive and valuable conversation.

You may find that the teacher’s identified the same strengths and needs in their self-assessment that you mentioned in your assessment. In that case, you can focus your conversation on any differences between the assessments you shared with each other. Keep the meeting’s tone positive and centered on finding ways to address any areas of improvement. As you did in your written assessment, be sure to use clear language throughout the meeting. If the conversation becomes difficult, suggest another time to follow-up and discuss next steps.

4. Invite each teacher’s feedback

Reviews are a time to provide feedback as well as receive it, so be sure to give your teachers plenty of time to voice their own concerns.

Give them the chance to identify what’s preventing them from reaching a certain goal—you might even ask them to send you these roadblocks before the evaluation. This gives you time to assess the significance of each roadblock and come to the meeting with potential solutions or suggestions.

5. Update their professional growth goals and plans 

Professional growth plans should be revised every year, but they may need updating mid-year. Budgets fluctuate, programs start or end, and student needs change—teachers’ goals must reflect district and school priorities. Making sure each teacher has a relevant and achievable growth plan ensures the teacher evaluation cycle supports teachers, students, and school needs.