ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2, we explored assumptions and the role they play in teacher evaluation program development. We’ve seen that unexamined assumptions set us up for failure. Neglecting to explicitly state the assumptions of the program will increase confusion, inhibit cohesion and stand in the way of our goals. That doesn’t mean we can do away with assumptions altogether. Rather, we need new assumptions for evaluating teachers, ones that assume collective processes as the norm and establish the expectations that increase collective efficacy. In this chapter we will explore the new assumptions that should become part of the narrative. By changing the assumptions we can influence teachers and principals to engage in processes of inquiry as a formal process embedded within our systematic structures. The definitions and assumptions about high-quality teaching need restructuring. In Chapter 4, quality teaching was redefined as a collaborative endeavor. In this chapter we will explicitly state the new assumptions that underlie the new definition of high-quality teaching.
