Teachers right to know - Khaleej Times

In a bid to guarantee teachers' right to know the result of their evaluation and pre-empt favouritism, the education zone has asked school administrations to inform teachers about the content of the assessment reports, said Mohammed Salim Al Dahiri, the Director of the Abu Dhabi Education Zone (ADEZ), told Khaleej Times.

Government schools annually submit confidential reports on the teachers' academic performance to the zone to assess their efficiency. The school administration also submits another confidential report by the middle of the academic year to the zone on the teacher's relationship with the students and the administration.

In making this move, the Abu Dhabi Education Zone is conforming to Western standards. I wonder if those standards are the best standards in the West or outside the West. Yes, if assessments are kept secret from the teachers themselves, then the assessments cannot be corrected by the teacher and the assessment system is more subject to favouritism (but it is in anyway).

Let's not forget, however, that the objective here is to improve education. We know that when assessments are not confidential they tend to be uninformative. Poor information leads to management errors. The result is poor teachers are kept on, and good teachers are not given incentives to ensure they stay on.

Here's a thoughtful and accessible article on paying teachers based on performance.