Start up edtech company, Panorama Education, continues to get favorable press coverage of its tools to help school districts survey students in order to help improve teacher performance. Here are five important lessons that can be gleaned from today's article in the New York Times.
1) Evaluation must help teachers improve. Employee evaluation provides little benefit if it is just about so-called accountability; its first priority must be professional development and improvement. Teacher Leila Campbell uses the feedback from Panorama's survey "to adjust her classroom manner."
2) Implementation trumps policy. Panorama CEO Aaron Feuer started pushing for student feedback as a high school student leader in California, including as president of the California Association of Student Councils. The group pushed the state legislature to pass a law encouraging schools to get student input but it produced few results. As a former state legislator, this disappointment is not surprising. So much time, money and attention is spent on education policy today with limited benefit. Putting more resources into helping schools implement new approaches can have more impact. Feuer's experience is a case in point.
3) Edtech companies must invest in content knowledge. Panorama could have just remained a technology product that enables student surveys. Instead, they have invested in education-specific survey research to better understand how to pose questions to young students. This will help increase their credibility in the market they serve.
4) Organize the data to a decision-making task. I'm paraphrasing Peter Drucker but data alone doesn't help most front line practitioners like teachers and school principals. Panorama's tools include a dashboard to help make sense of what the data is saying.
5) Student voices matter. Much of the education debate is about teaching -- when the ultimate goal is learning. So if we focus too much on teaching, we might think that only teachers' perspectives count. They are important but it is student voices that will shed light on learning.
Michael Meotti is the Principal of Ed Policy Group and formerly served as CT Commissioner of Higher Education and President of the United Way of Connecticut. Check out Mike’s blog about higher education trends, student success, college readiness and education technology.
