Teacher Evaluations
What Are Your Thoughts on the New Teacher Performance Evaluation Process?
A reflection from the perspective of a specialist, teacher, and working artist.
As a specialist, I agree with much of what the New York Times article highlighted. The new evaluation system has dramatically shifted how my time is spent. I now have far less space to explore new ideas for lessons, research what other artists are doing—locally or beyond—and engage in the creative work that keeps my teaching alive. What once energized me now competes with hours of documentation and mandated evaluation tasks. The reality is that I already work three hours beyond the school day; the system seems to expect three more.
I learned quickly that the work I love most—developing new lessons, experimenting in my studio, and thoughtfully connecting those ideas to the Common Core, ELA standards, and the new visual arts standards—is now a marathon. It often keeps me up far into the night. The result? Less sleep and less of the creative energy that once fueled my teaching.
More and more of my time is spent trying to align every lesson to the state-mandated teacher rubric so I can prove I’m teaching and prove students are learning. Art teachers have always struggled with this: How do you assess artwork in a way that honors the artistic process—creation, critique, display—while still meeting external mandates? For years, I followed citywide standards that respected the integrity of visual art education. Now, the focus feels less about art and more about compliance.
I still begin my work the way I always have—by designing something meaningful. Maybe it’s a new approach to color theory. But before I can teach it, I now must layer on the new language, acronyms, buzzwords, national standards, state standards, city standards, schoolwide goals, ELA connections, math connections, exit tickets, and modifications for every group. Only then can I even consider delivering the lesson.
And here is the truth, after 15 years of teaching: a lesson is only as exciting to students as it is to the teacher. But when I’m creating it at 2 or 3 a.m., running on three to five hours of sleep, using worn-down supplies because we simply don’t have what other districts have, that excitement is harder to summon. I’m grateful to every parent who donates materials—we survive because of them.
So how do I feel?
Alone. Tired.
The lesson I was once thrilled to teach becomes the lesson I now worry about. Does it check every box? Does it satisfy every rubric? Does it align with every grade level I teach? I genuinely don’t know anymore.
What I do know is that I love teaching. You have to love it to stay in it. But do I love teaching while trying to juggle this many layers of assessment—for my students and myself? That’s the part I’m not sure about.
Comments