How do I write teacher evaluations that are both fair and efficient?

The biggest efficiency gain comes from a counterintuitive realization: you don't need to write every teacher's evaluation from scratch. Strong teachers tend to share common patterns of practice — careful planning, strong classroom management, responsive instruction. The specific evidence differs, but the narrative structures are similar. That means you can develop a library of well-written descriptions that you customize with specific evidence for each teacher.

This isn't cutting corners. It's recognizing that quality evaluation writing, like quality teaching, benefits from reusable structures. The customization comes from the evidence — the specific observations, quotes, and examples that make each evaluation unique to that teacher.

Where you invest your custom writing time is on the teachers who need it most: those who are struggling, new to the profession, or on a formal improvement path. That's where individualized, detailed narrative makes the biggest difference — for the teacher, for students, and for documentation.