Megan Walck

West Point MTP

June 14, 2014

Session One Reflection

I will have to admit, at first glance, I was a little concerned that the first article,
Evaluating Teaching: A New Approach to an Old Problem, was about educators at the higher
education level and not teachers at the high school level, like me. However, I was glad to find
both levels carry many of the same issues. Perhaps, if we can fix the issues together, and
across the board, we can better the educational process for our students at any age.
This article, in particular, noted one of the major dysfunctions of todays education
system: How to evaluate good teaching? What is it? What does it look like? The author, Dee
Fink, really struck me when she said, At the present time, many institutions fall into the trap of
valuing what can easily be measured. This is the very situation that I am currently trapped in.
The state of Pennsylvania is going to use my students standardized test data as part of my
summative evaluation as a teacher. Why? Probably because it is an easy number to measure,
and can be held against other similar situations. I am not okay with this, as it does not take
into account variables such as mood, test-anxiety, testing location, distractions, motivation, etc.
Furthermore, as a former special education teacher, I truly feel as if these tests are set up to make
the students with learning difficulties fail. Personally, if I were forced to take test after test after
test that I was certain to do poorly on, I would not even try. Where is the motivation to do well?
Finks article goes on to say, Effective organizations find a way of measuring what they
value. Genius, but then there is the conundrum of how to do this. An idea that I have is inviting
invested people, such as school board members, into the classroom, after it is decided what the
district values most. After all, the district will represent the community and the people therein.
For instance, I feel that Northern Potter values hometown feel and taking care of the land and
your neighbors. So, let them, representatives of the community, see first-hand what is going on.
Their report(s) could be used in conjunction with student and administrative evaluations, test
data, and a model similar to the authors. Perhaps by using a model, such as Finks, at more than
just the higher education level, teachers at all levels could improve education across the board.




Fink, D. Evaluating Teaching: A New Approach to an Old Problem. To Improve the Academy:
Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development, 26, 3-21.