Necessary Steps to Ensure Effective Teaching for All Children

2.       Create performance standards for teachers and principals that are aligned with student success, and implement them consistently district-wide.

                   
Good teaching should be clearly defined, in order to bring about high-quality teaching and learning. However, there is no clear definition and no commonly held standard across the School District of Philadelphia for high-quality teaching.  Standards vary by region and administrative unit and are often not aligned with 21^st century skills, grade level performance or PSSA proficiency.   

Suggested Reforms

 ·                 Create performance standards for teaching and school leadership aligned with current research.  The District should engage teachers, principals, students, and parents along with national experts, to develop standards for teachers and principals.

 ·             Create a new performance evaluation system, including performance metrics, based on teaching and school leadership standards. Consistent standards must be implemented across schools, right now. The current evaluation protocol (with only “satisfactory” and “unsatisfactory” performance criteria) is neither useful nor consistently implemented. Principals should observe and evaluate teachers as described in the 2007 Strategic Professional Development Review of the School District of Philadelphia prepared by Education Resource Strategies (ERS).  In the interim, the District should mandate use of the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s (PDE) forms 426, 427, and 428 which are used successfully in many suburban school districts and provide a coherent framework.  The District can replace these forms once it has created its own documents and training. 

 ·               Use rigorous performance standards in tenure reviews, decisions on teacher termination, and in the determination of professional development needs.

 ·             Upgrade and connect data systems so that personnel information, evaluations, and professional development, etc. can be accessed seamlessly.  Currently, data is kept in separate places within the District making it impossible to chart teachers’ backgrounds, needs, and professional development experiences. An upgraded system could track teachers from their first contact (e.g. field practicum or student teaching) through retirement.  The data systems should be integrated with other city and regional data systems as needed.