By Ari Howorth
Arts Editor
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District will implement a beneficial new system for evaluating teachers this year. On Oct. 6, MBUSD’s Board and the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association passed a memorandum of understanding that provides a broad outline of the pilot program for next year.
This system will bring positive change, addressing faults in the current method that stem from a lack of standards for teacher evaluations.
The pilot program, which will be tested throughout the 2013-2014 school year before it is enacted, already appears more effective for the district, with its set of standards aligning with those set forth by the National Board for Professional Teaching.
These measure teachers’ commitment to students, knowledge of their subjects, responsibility over managing students’ learning, systematically thought about their practices, and involvement as members of their learning communities.
The current system, according to Mira Costa social science teacher and chair of MBUTA negotiating team Adam Gezci, is a collection of various past practices. Teachers are currently graded as either “unsatisfactory,” “needs improvement,” “meets standards” or “exceeds standards.” With a new set of standards, teachers will be held more accountable.
While this system functioned efficiently for hiring teachers, teachers were not given feedback as to how they can improve after being employed. Teachers are now going to be given these specifics so they can become better educators. This means that teachers can improve as a whole in a wide variety of areas, instead of being giving vague details about their teaching.
According to MBUSD Superintendant Dr. Michael Matthews, each evaluation in the past program could be different, depending on who conducts the evaluation and what he or she valued in a teacher. With a uniform set of standards, the pilot program looks to rid the system of subjectivity.
All temporary or probationary teachers are required to take part in the evaluations. Permanent or tenured teachers will also be able to volunteer for evaluations, unlike the old program, which required only limited evaluation for veteran teachers. This is beneficial because each evaluation gives additional specifics as to how a teacher can improve. This means that tenured teachers should positively develop as educators.
The pilot program for teacher evaluations is a well-thought-out plan that will be beneficial for MBUSD. It provides ways for capable teachers to improve and establishes a uniform set of standards so teachers know what they are being evaluated for. The increased communication between the MBUTA and MBUSD will make this program successful and will continue to strengthen MBUSD teachers.
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