Teacher Review ProcessTo our community,

The Teacher Development Committee, or TDC, consists of three groups: Professional Development, Mentoring, and Reviews. Every teacher has his or her work reviewed by a review group, the Pedagogical or Department Chair at three-year intervals. A review group generally consists of two Faculty Conference members assigned by the TDC to gather input from classroom observations, colleagues, previous reviews, outside evaluators when necessary, parents, and a self-evaluation by the teacher.  When all these materials have been gathered, the review group meets with the teacher and his or her mentor to discuss the areas which are working well and those which may need support. From this meeting, or meetings, the review group draws up a list of commendations and recommendations, which are reported to the TDC. The teacher is asked to take up the recommendations with his or her mentor in a timely manner, and a date may be set for a follow-up visit and meeting.

Parent feedback is a valuable part of every review process; parents can tell us how their child’s teacher is communicating in parent evenings, conferences, reports and other updates. Parents can tell us how the whole class community is being held by the teacher. In the interest of involving the parent community as fully as possible in this process, we are publishing the list of teachers up for review this year, along with their review committee members and their mentors. The first name on the review committee is the head, and the name in parentheses is the mentor.

While class teachers may reach out directly to the parents of their students, subject and High School teachers have many more students and families, so we ask that you consider this article to be our review notification of your child’s teachers if they are on the list that follows, and that you take time over the next few weeks to write to the head of any review committee for the relevant teachers. In the interest of fair employment practices, we will not accept any communication sent by email, nor any sent anonymously. Forms for parent feedback are available in the main office, and may be returned there for the head of the review committee, or for the teacher. Alternatively, you may make an appointment with a member of the review committee for a conversation. Of course, you can always speak with your child’s teacher or mentor directly.

Thank you in advance for taking the time and thought to participate in the review process.

The Teacher Development Committee, review group:
Thomas Heineman, Magdalena Toran