Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW DOMAIN

Literature Review Domain B

Brittany Votendahl
National University

Abstract

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This paper explores the article, Can Classroom Assessments of Student Growth Be Credibly Used to
Evaluate Teachers? by Popham, W James. The article discusses the pros and cons of student
assessments used for teacher evaluations. I work to review this article and give my honest opinion as a
teacher.

The article, Can Classroom Assessments of Student Growth Be Credibly Used to

Evaluate Teachers? by Popham, W James (2013), discusses how teacher evaluations are
changing. They are becoming more rigorous by using student assessments to determine whether
a teacher is an effective teacher or not. The problem with this is that teachers are already
constrained for time by teaching longer hours without real results (James, 2013). States will need
to come up with a way to effectively evaluate students test scores for these evaluations and many
states cannot afford a data-collection system that does this (James, 2013). That means teachers
will need to collect their own classroom data, but it needs to be credible (James, 2013). I agree
that assessment-based evaluations are difficult and teachers are not always a fan.
From my experience in teaching, these evaluations for elementary school teachers in
Nevada will be based on the state assessments for third through fifth grade. It is not accurate for
every teacher because it is not based on that teachers individual students rather the entirety of

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the four grades. This goes back to James (2013), question of validity. Evaluative data collected
by superior classroom assessments will almost always be more credible than will data collected
by shoddy classroom assessments (James, 2013). This I agree with because if teachers just
created their own assessments, they could gear it towards what their students definitely know and
skew the results. However, the article does not address the issue with the way Nevada is starting
to do their evaluations. As a first grade teacher who is new to the school, I do not find it fair that
my evaluation will be based on the upper grades of students whom I never even taught. I have to
trust that those teachers effectively teach their students and the students do well in order for me
to get a good evaluation.
The article also discusses the possibility of scoring inaccuracies. This can be a huge
problem and was a problem with state testing in Nevada last year. There was a problem with the
actual testing thus the scores were not accurate and the entire test was thrown out. This can be a
big concern when those tests are relied upon for teacher evaluations. Will there be a back-up?
This article was a good read and gave great insight into assessment based teacher evaluations. I
am struggling with this as a teacher and I am sure other teachers are as well. Only time will tell
how well this goes over when put into practice.

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References
Popham, W. J. (2013). Can classroom assessments of student growth be credibly used to evaluate
teachers? English Journal, 103(1), 34-39. Web.