Job Discussion Forums

[jay-shi]

Do you have to write evaluations for your students? If you do, what can and can't you say about your students? Are you allowed to be honest about your student's performance?

How long do they have to be? Do they have to be hand written or done on a computer?

i am curious about what the practices are in different parts of the world.

I have to write about 150 evaluations every 2 months and they have to be mostly positive. Anything too negative wouldn't go over too well either with management or with parents.

[Justin Trullinger]

Usually do them on computer, but if you'd ever seen my handwriting, you'd see the advantage in that!

We usually do reports at midterm and at the end of term. (Terms are 10 weeks, 60 hours of class, so every five weeks or every thirty hours.)

When I say that I can be completely honest...maybe it would be better to say I AM honest, and parents, students, and management are getting used to it. Sometimes there are complaints, but what's the point in a report that only tells you what you want to hear?

Regards,

Justin

[Glenski]

At my old conversation school, no.
At my high school, no for most classes.
The exception is a group of 15-20 higher level students. In that class, their grades are determined by the 5 major tests they take during the year (far too easy for them, but the administration won't listen to reason on changing that). My "evaluation" is given to them when they get grades, and it is meant to explain their weaknesses so they are motivated to improve next year. Admin would also like some positive points put in them, too, but overall it must be honest. Since these evaluations have no bearing on their grades, I see them as pointless.

[Girl Scout]

We write weekly communication books. We inform the parents about this weeks lessons and next weeks lessons. At the bottom we have to write comments to the parents about performance and behavior. Twice a year we write evaluations to our bosses about the students. We are allowed to say anything we want. I mostly feel that they don't care what we think and already have their own opinions about the students.

[jay-shi]

I am also wondering in what areas do you evaluate students. At my school we currently evaluate participation, behavior, vocabulary, pronunciation, reading and writing. Do your evaluations focus on these areas as well or maybe on some other ones?

[Glenski]

jay,
How do you keep track of the first four things for 150 students? Pretty qualitative judgment calls in most cases, I would say. As for me, it's pretty impossible because I have almost 400 students, and I barely get to know 10% of their names.

[jay-shi]

[Glenski]

jay-shi,
That's all well and good for pronunciation and vocabulary, and as for reading and writing there's always some homework I presume you grade.

However, how the heck do you keep track of participation and behavior for 150 students? And, just how much of their grades are reflected in assessing these two parameters. At my high school, such things are required of us by the administration, but even with Japanese co-teachers we wing it most of the time. If the J teacher doesn't know the kids or have some red mark in his/her attendance book when a kid goofs off, we just give everyone a full score on these matters. Even when they get red marks, how much is actually taken off varies from teacher to teacher and amounts to practically nothing substantive.

[Gregor]

I voted Yes, and it has to be positive, but I want to explain.
We have a form on the computer, and we choose a comment, pre-translated for parents, that comes the closest to what we want to say.
The thing is, though, that some of the oneslower down on the form use euphemistic language that ensures that we don't make negative comments.
I'm not sure what would happen if a teacher insisted on making negative comments. The translation would be difficult to obtain, I suppose, and it would NOT be negative. And anyway, the choices come close enough and the computerized thing makes it FAR easier to do, so it hasn't really been an issue.
But teachers have to be practical about this sort of thing, at least in the places I've taught. Schools should maintain standards, yes, I agree 100%. This is good for their reputations, I would think. But teachers also have to keep in mind who their students are.
Where I work, many of the students take their English studies quite seriously, and of course those are no problem. Others are young, and their parents take a huge interest, whether or not their kid does. These parents are, by and large, helpful to the teacher in maintaining the students' good study habits, and though some of those kids are a pain, the teachers' written reports go completely ignored because the parents and teachers are talking.
But there are some students to whom English is not a high priority, and they want to stay in class with their friends. They don't care about English all that much, and/or their parents don't care. If they can maintain a minimum for the class and they want to be there (or the parents want them to be), then there's no reason to go looking for trouble. Give out euphemistic reports. There's never a good reason to tear people down, anyway. If there's an actual PROBLEM, then get the parents or the DoS or whatever involved. Find out what the trouble is.
Basically, if the school's policy is to issue occasional reports, issue positive ones ANYWAY, and just stay in communication with the interested parties. We ARE dealing with people here, after all. And people can be talked to.
Of course, there are owners who cowtow to the students or parents and cause problems for everyone, but that issue is bigger than just written students reports.

The only exception to this attitude, and I make sure the teachers do this, is if there is a problem, it should either go in the report or the parent should be contacted. And both is best, because with the report there is written evidence if the problem doesn't get corrected. But even these can be stated in a positive way, i.e. the student needs to work on this, NOT the student SUCKS at it.