Teri Pinney: Looking for good, effective, teachers?\Here's how to find them

All sorts of ways to evaluate educators, but which ones are most important?

Here we go again! That onerous debate on teacher evaluations is at the forefront across the country. How a teacher is evaluated, who should do it, what should it be based upon, what happens when the evaluation results are poor or great — it's endless.

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article entitled, "How can we measure the immeasurable?" I quoted the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, which examined the efficacy of alternative pay systems, based on teacher evaluations. The director reported that "top teachers" were being identified through "fuzzy criteria."

Apparently, identifying performances and then measuring them against standards is quite complicated. Then there's the daunting task of assuring that teachers in all disciplines of study are evaluated fairly and objectively across the board.

We still do not know how to avoid racking up soft teacher evaluations that do nothing to protect our students from subpar instruction. In 2007, The Associated Press reported how a whopping 99.7 percent of Chicago teachers received satisfactory to distinguished evaluation ratings.

One would hope that something as overinflated as this is not likely to occur in Florida, where the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and end-of-course tests are hailed for measuring teacher effectiveness.

Despite a bad rap, standardized testing has its value. Accountability is now entrenched in the minds of educators. They have developed an eagle's eye on academic achievement scores. Any drop on a student's test results raises red flags and swooping accommodations are implemented to address and curtail the problem.

But, of course, test scores alone do not identify an effective teacher. What is an effective teacher? And how do you measure a good one?

Undoubtedly, a proper evaluation has to include a combination of test scores and administrative observation. But shouldn't students also rate their teachers? They're the ones who can attest as to whether a teacher challenged them to learn. What about parents? They interact with teachers and their own children enough to know whether instruction is first-rate. What about other teachers? Ask any one of them, and they can pretty much identify an effective teacher. They can also pinpoint the dud, too.

The trend of having end-users evaluate services is becoming more popular than ever. Why not bring it to education? Training programs and workshops end with fill-out sheets at that ask for instructor ratings. Physicians are now being evaluated by patients. A movement is also under way to rate attorneys. These are probably being spurred on by insurance companies, but the critical thing is that it's not so much a standardized test that determines the rank of the professional, but the satisfaction of their customers, patients, or clients.

High up on the scale of effectiveness in an educator is the ability to motivate and inspire not only students, but those around him or her. Positive demeanor, superb communication skills, encouraging — just think back to an outstanding teacher you once knew. Teaching is a career that requires good people skills. Combine these traits with the ability to bring about learning gains, and you've got a good, effective teacher.