Criticizing Constructively to Aid Practice

I have mixed feelings about the Schmoker article. I was not happy with Schmoker judgment about education as a hard-line field. There are multiple facets of education that may not show up in other arenas. I don’t believe that education’s results can show up as quantitatively as in other areas. What I mean by this is simple. In business, if production and sales drop, the money that is made generally drops. The field is very cut and dry. Employees may have strong ties to their duties, but I believe that the connections pale in comparison to the connections made by teachers. In education there is a very strong personal tie between the employees [teachers] and their production [the students.] The teachers feel a more than professional bond to their work, and tend to take it personally when they are offered even the most constructive of criticisms. I am not trying to be an advocate of lassiere faire education. I think it is important to offer critiques to hone educational practice. However, I feel that in our area more than others a gentle hand must be used in evaluating teachers and other professionals. Like I said to open, I have mixed feelings about the article. I feel that it is vital for a school to evaluate itself and to try to reinvent teachers who are not performing up to the needs of their students. If you have read my blog, I don’t mean to be repetitive, but I believe that teachers need to be held accountable to their standards while having freedom to teach to their varied interests. That being said, even though I think evaluation needs to be made with a gentle hand, I think that it is the duty of administration to outline directly with staff where developmental needs lie while offering solutions on how to remedy the specific staff needs. Very basically, I believe an administrator can express some desire to change what is occurring in a classroom as long as the administrator can offer ideas and maybe some PD to help that teacher to grow his/her practice. Schmoker discusses the value of constructive criticism and I have to agree, if appropriately given, constructive criticism is vital for teachers to grow.