The assessment process described in the following standards can be used by a teacher engaged in a process of self-analysis and personal growth or by a teacher working in concert with colleagues or supervisors in an effort to improve instruction. Each standard serves as a statement about what should be observed regardless of who is doing the observing. Further, the standards can be useful in evaluating teachers with a wide range of teaching experience and expertise. They provide foci to be considered by all who teach mathematics. Evaluation comes in many forms.
Teachers improve their own teaching by reflecting on and analyzing previous lessons.
Evaluation is also an activity involving peers, one supporting the other in trying to improve the quality of instruction. The vignettes in this section illustrate both forms of evaluation. Teachers are sometimes evaluated because of district or state mandates to make career-ladder decisions or to make judgments about a teacher's competence. It is our position that such evaluations should also adhere to the following standards particularly with respect to the teacher's participation in the process and in defining the foci of the evaluation. Teachers who strive to improve their instruction will take risks by experimenting with instructional approaches that are either new to them or that they have not yet mastered.