Dear Janice, I have always wondered whether a copy of the teacher evaluation form is given to prospective teachers early in the hiring process so that they can make sure that the format of their class conforms to the expectations on the form. I just took a class at the convention which had many, many strengths, but there were no paper handouts. There are two questions on the evaluation form which relate to the quality of paper handouts, so, the teacher really couldn't be accorded any points in those categories, undoubtedly decreasing the total score. She was a teacher who was new to our convention and may not have known exactly what the expectations were. The question occurred to me that if the teachers don't have a copy of the form, way, way in advance of the class, a situation is created where new teachers are likely to score low on the form, while established teachers are more likely to score high on the form because they know exactly what they will be evaluated on. If future conventions look at the forms and choose among the high scoring teachers, then there is an unconscious bias being created that works against the expansion of our teaching pool to new teachers. Devon
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