Dear editor:
Re: Grading teachers: What would it look like?, The Record, April 4.
How can a teacher be supported and helped without evaluations? How can a teacher have the opportunity to improve if evaluations are not done?
By not evaluating teachers, administration gets off the hook for not dealing with parent concerns. We asked for a copy for a blank evaluation form back in October 2011 and several times since. We have yet to receive one. Could it be that it doesn't exist?
The New Westminster Teachers' Union collective agreement states: E 22.2.1 summative evaluation through teaching reports is a legally required process. Has the school board and administration not been doing what is legally required?
The BCSTA (B.C. School Trustees Association) website states that the board will "guide the work of their school district" and "is directly accountable to the people they serve." How is the board serving parents and children by not doing evaluations, resulting in concerns not being addressed or even acknowledged?
Some of the trustees have been on the school board for decades. If the school board chair acknowledges the benefit of formal evaluations, why isn't this standard practice, like so many other organizations? Does the board chair's comment "teachers may think they are in trouble now" if evaluations are done, stop the board from doing what is legally required?
Is this biasing the process from occurring? Does having three teacher trustees on the board impede the legal requirements from occurring? The most senior trustee in B.C. is a teacher, and so is his spouse.
Could this conflict of interest be one of the impediments to having evaluations done?
If three trustees are teachers, how likely is it that evaluations will start to happen anytime soon.
BCSTA's members approved the concept of boards' key work - improving student achievement through community engagement. In the best interest of the community that the board serves, including the teachers, evaluations need to be done.
It is conceivable that if evaluations were done, teachers would be supported and parents' concerns from years ago would have been addressed and the current "math situation" would not have occurred.
The current problem was identified by parents and brought to administration many years ago.
Regardless of what action was taken or not taken, it was not effective, resulting in students being negatively impacted academically and emotionally.
During the past six months, we are left with more questions than answers in our dealings with the school district.
Skirting issues, avoiding direct answers and trying to find loopholes to dismiss parent concerns don't sound like techniques used to improve student achievement.
Kal Randhawa, New Westminster
