Video to be a key part of student teacher evaluation

Standing at the edge of a pond surrounded by her class of fourth-graders, student teacher Jasmine Zeppa filled a bucket with brown water and lectured her pupils on the science of observing and recording data. Many of the children seemed more interested in nearby geese, a passing jogger, and the crunchy leaves underfoot.

Zeppa’s own professor from St. Catherine University stood nearby and recorded video of it all.

“I think it went as well as it possibly could have, given her experience,” said the professor, Susan Gibbs Goetz. Her snap review: The 25-year-old Zeppa could have done a better job holding the students’ attention, but she did well building on past lessons.

Teaching colleges are preparing aspiring teachers for new, more demanding requirements to receive their teacher license: Under a new teacher evaluation system being tested in 19 states, evaluators will watch video clips of student teachers delivering lessons in their classroom, and candidates must show that they can prepare a lesson, tailor it to students of different abilities, and present it effectively.

Most states only require that student teachers pass their class work and a written test. Supporters of the new Teacher Performance Assessment system say it’s a significant improvement in teacher evaluation, while others are a little more cautious in their praise—warning that it’s not guaranteed to lead to more successful teachers.

The assessments also place responsibility for grading student teachers with teams of outside evaluators who have no stake in the result. Currently, teachers-in-training are evaluated by their teaching colleges, which want their student teachers to get their teaching licenses.

“It’s a big shift that the whole country is going through,” said Misty Sato, a University of Minnesota education professor who is helping to adapt the assessments for Minnesota. “It’s going from ‘What has your candidate experienced?’ to what your candidate can do.”

Minnesota is expected to be the first state to implement the new teacher evaluation system when it adopts the system in 2012. Four other states—Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington—plan to implement it within five years. Fourteen more states are running pilots.

The teacher evaluation program is a joint project by a consortium made up of Stanford University, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), and the Council of Chief State School Officers.