Hinsdale High School Teachers Association

At the end of the the 2007-2008 school year, I received my first evaluation as “satisfactory,” after having received an “excellent” evaluation for my previous five years at Hinsdale South.  It was a disappointing evaluation for me, for in October of 2007  I earned National Board Certification, the highest level of certification/achievement available to our nation’s K-12 educators – an achievement I thought would have earned me an excellent rating if anything ever did.  But alas, I received a “satisfactory” rating along with what appears to be 100% of the teachers in District 86; we all received the same rating this year, regardless how we performed in the previous school year.

We were informed this rating stemmed from the Administration’s realization that the dimensions of an “Excellent” rating needed to be “negotiated,” and this not having been done, everyone received the default evaluation of “Satisfactory.” This of course left me confused.  If the details of an “Excellent” rating need to be negotiated, why don’t those for “Satisfactory?” And how exactly had it been decided/determined that I had performed in a “Satisfactory” manner? And was it true that all the teachers at our district had performed at more or less the same level for the previous school year?

None of this made any sense to me, nor did it make much sense to many of my colleagues, who were frustrated by what seemed like an arbitrary decision by the district Administration. This in turn led to speculation and suspicion about what the “real” motivations of such a decision might have been. This is a natural by-product of decisions made without the full participation of all involved.

In my opinion, the administration has shot itself in the foot, for the product of this year’s staff evaluation simply has lost respect from the district corps of teachers, and hence become meaningless (at least that is the sense I have gotten from my colleagues). Although the long-term damage of this outcome remains to be seen, I ask our district administration to look at this experience and learn from it. I invite them to employ openness, honesty and full participation going forward in this. I can guarantee teachers’ desire to participate in such fashion.