Whole Child Education

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Teacher quality is the most important in-school factor that influences student learning and achievement. Research shows that students with high-performing teachers can progress three times as fast as students with low-performing teachers and each student deserves access to highly effective teachers in every subject. In turn, all teachers deserve a fair and accurate assessment of their skills, how they perform in the classroom, and how they can improve. Teacher effectiveness is dependent on accurate and fair evaluations based on multiple measures, including—but not solely based around—their students' performance in the subjects they teach.

Teachers should be evaluated based on their performance in their own subject area using a range of criteria, including observations, peer reviews, parental or student input, and analysis of agreed-on student learning evidence. In this episode, we discuss effective teacher evaluation that produces results that truly benefit students, schools, and educators. You'll hear from

• Mike Blakeslee, deputy executive director and chief operating officer of the National Association for Music Education, a whole child partner organization and member of ASCD’s College, Career, and Citizenship Readiness Coalition;
• Bryan Goodwin, vice president of communications at McREL, based in Denver, Colo., and coauthor of "Use Caution with Value-Added Measures" in the November 2012 issue of ASCD's Educational Leadership; and
• Cindy Weber, superintendent of Durand Area Schools in Durand, Mich., and author of "The Balancing Acts of Teacher Evaluation," also in this month's Educational Leadership.

If the ultimate goal of teacher evaluation is to improve student performance, what should evaluators look for?

So, where do we begin?

Teacher evaluation, throughout most of our recent history, has been practiced religiously with the intent—or, at least, hope—that it will improve performance. The assumption underlying much of teacher evaluation practice goes something like this:

We know that this system does not work. A picture of educator skill and practice cannot be gained through observation alone, and not all evaluation processes promote professional growth and affect student achievement. In this series of blog posts, I attempt to offer an analysis of three contemporary teacher evaluation practices within a problem/solution framework.

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Teachers know it, parents know it, and even students know it, but there seems to be no consensus across states, districts, and schools about how to measure it and ensure that it is measured fairly. I'm talking about teacher evaluations. Having an effective teacher at the head of the class is the most important in-school factor influencing student learning, and teacher evaluation systems are supposed to assess just how good teachers are in the classroom, with the goal of helping them improve as needed. But many teachers report that they are not evaluated often enough and, in some cases, are not even evaluated in the subjects they teach.

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Teacher quality is the most important in-school factor influencing student learning and achievement. Research shows that students with high-performing teachers can progress three times as fast as students with low-performing teachers and each student deserves access to highly effective teachers in every subject. In turn, all teachers deserve a fair and accurate assessment of their skills, how they perform in the classroom, and how they can improve. Teacher effectiveness is dependent on accurate and fair evaluations, based on multiple measures, including—but not solely based around—their students' performance in the subjects they teach.

Teachers should be evaluated based on their performance in their own subject area using a range of criteria, including observations, peer reviews, parental or student input, and analysis of agreed-on student learning evidence. Join us throughout November as we take a look at models of effective evaluation that produce results that truly benefit students, schools, and educators.

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ASCD has released a new report titled Fulfilling the Promise of the Common Core State Standards: Moving from Adoption to Implementation to Sustainability that illuminates activities educators and policymakers at all levels can undertake to successfully implement the Common Core State Standards across the United States, including "transform principals into instructional leaders."

Until now, principals have been the overlooked constituency as states have sought to gain acceptance of the standards from rank-and-file classroom teachers while simultaneously working with district-level leaders to create systemic supports and reforms aligned to the standards.

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Post written by Howard Adelman, PhD, and Linda Taylor, PhD, codirectors of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School Mental Health Project/Center for Mental Health in Schools. This post was originally featured on the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute blog, The Intersection.

When policymakers introduce another initiative for education reform, the press to implement the new initiative often draws attention away from other essential facets involved in improving and transforming schools. Currently, this is happening with the Common Core State Standards movement.

Efforts to revamp schools cannot afford to marginalize any primary and essential facet of what must take place at schools every day. As those who have followed the work of the Center for Mental Health in Schools know, we are moving efforts to improve schools from a two- to a three-component framework (PDF).

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In this video, cyberbullying expert Justin Patchin defines cyberbullying and provides tips for schools on appropriate prevention and response practices. Use this video to start a discussion with your staff about what cyberbullying is and which policies and strategies are most effective for disarming it.

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"We can't narrow the focus of our schools into just math and reading and still expect to graduate students who are ready for college, a career and citizenship," writes ASCD Executive Director Gene Carter in his special commentary for CNN's Schools of Thought blog. "A comprehensive education provides students the opportunity to discover what they excel at and inspires a boost in overall student performance and confidence across all subjects."

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Post written by Matthew Swift and originally featured in Policy Priorities.

Teachers, students, and administrators are aware that any major changes to ESEA could have a huge effect on their school districts. Issues such as common core state standards and waivers are among the many policies that could be affected. Even without reauthorization, ESEA (currently known as No Child Left Behind, or NCLB) affects districts across the nation in numerous ways. Despite the issues ESEA presents, educators are still doing their part to ensure students get a good education.

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ASCD conducted its second Whole Child Virtual Conference in May. This free conference showcases schools, authors, and research about implementing a whole child approach for a worldwide audience. View and share archived session recordings, presenter handouts, and related resources at www.ascd.org/wcvirtualconference.

Gain further insight into ways to better align health and education in school settings through these presentations:

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