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How to Assess Your Teaching Quality

Vocation. It means “calling.” Everybody knows that. Americans use the term all the time for their profession, their job. But to most Americans, the word has lost its core meaning. If we work in a calling, then someone has called us. If we’re teachers, then the fact that we’re teaching is part of a plan; we have been designed to be teachers, we have been appointed to be teachers, and we will be held to gracious account as to how well we have fulfilled our calling. The Caller makes and carries out good plans.

In our largely secular society, that vision is gone. Nationwide, more than 1 in 3 teachers quit after 3 years, and nearly half quit after 5.[1] That means, first, that a great many people have spent thousands of dollars on a college education that they barely use and second, that an unnecessarily high percentage of teachers are inexperienced.

Why the attrition rate? The chaos of the public education system undoubtedly plays a role; no one wants to live most of his waking hours in chaos. But underlying even that factor is the large-scale loss of a sense of calling—a relationship with the Caller. If we’re called by a good and great God to do something hard, we can endure even chaos for the sake of the larger cause.

Fortunately, while Christian education is difficult, it doesn’t suffer from the kind of frustration and despair that are the natural consequences of the current public education system. We are promised direction and empowerment by a loving heavenly Father. And one day we will have the opportunity to give account of our stewardship. How great will be the joy of hearing His “Well done”!

So. We’d better do the best we can, by His grace. Are you doing a good job in educating your students? How do you know?

There are two elements to a complete answer to that question. First, are you teaching your students the curriculum content that they need? And second, are you teaching that content effectively? In other words, are they getting the right stuff, and are they really “getting” it?

Assessing Curriculum Content

Some educational experts assert that a major problem with American education is that we have no standard national curriculum and thus no way to administer standardized tests that measure the students against a uniform curriculum and no way to prepare teachers to teach that specific curriculum.[2] Most conservatives would reply first that lack of a national curriculum is hardly the cause of the large-scale failure of American K–12 education— the problem with American students is not that they are learning different things from students in other states or communities but rather that they are learning essentially nothing at all—although they do have great self-esteem in the process—and that even if inconsistency were the problem, the federal government, given its track record in education and a great many other extra-constitutional endeavors, is hardly the institution to be trusted with devising the specific curriculum.

In the Christian school, the curriculum will be devised by the administration and faculty. They can use several sources for guidance: the public school curriculum (at least its scope and sequence), the curriculum of other Christian schools, and the textbooks available from the major Christian or even secular publishers. Home educators, of course, can use the same sources in planning their curriculum. Curriculum planners will find that such indicators are all fairly consistent with one another as to basic scope and sequence; for example, high school social-studies curricula almost always include a year each of world geography, world history, U.S. history, and U.S. government. Some might shorten the geography and/or government to a semester and add one or two semesters of other topics, such as economics, but these differences are typically inconsequential for the students’ preparation for college or life.[3]

As to the content of the specific courses, most states have some sort of content standards, and while they do differ somewhat among states[4] and are, of course, not perfect for every student, they do serve as a useful foundation. It would be wise for Christian educators to meet and exceed those standards so as to disarm the charge that their education is inferior. We should note, however, that the standards serve only as a minimum or core for the subject; they are not comprehensive. Curriculum should include other material. Educators can start with areas in which they have special expertise or interest, and they should extend the curriculum to areas of special interest for individual students as they have time and resources to do so.[5] Why? Because education is not merely about filling the student’s “bowl” with facts; it’s about turning on a switch, seizing his interest in learning, and preparing him to pursue it independently. If he’s deeply interested in something—assuming it’s worth learning—then a good teacher will leverage that interest to show him how to learn more on his own. The ideal graduate will learn much more after he graduates than he did in school. Thus, curriculum should include regular opportunities to read and explore widely.

Assessing Instructional Effectiveness

Analysts of the American educational system sometimes assert that the reason students don’t do well is that we don’t value our teaching profession enough—as is evidenced, for example, by the fact that we don’t pay teachers well.[6] Again, most conservatives would reject that premise, first because it assumes that an entire profession, on balance, is substandard—“we don’t have any good teachers because the good ones are attracted to higher-paying jobs, and we’re left with the incompetent ones who can’t get those better jobs”—and second, because the assertion ignores the simple fact that U.S. teachers (at least those in public education) are the highest-paid teachers in the world, including the other economically developed nations.[7] Further, teachers’ unions have persistently rejected efforts to assess teacher performance.[8]

The core question in instructional assessment is not the teacher’s degrees or CEUs or diversity of methods. All of these things can play a role, and occasionally they actually do. But the core question is how much the student has progressed from the beginning of a particular class to the end. If he hasn’t progressed satisfactorily, nothing else really matters. The teacher is not solely responsible for that progress, of course; the greatest responsibility is with the student himself, and environmental factors beyond the teacher’s control may influence the student’s progress as well. But the teacher is a major factor and the primary agent tasked with impelling the student forward.

The Grading System

So how do we assess student progress? For most courses, the academic grade is the most immediate key indicator. This means that the grading system has to be well designed; you get what you grade for, and if your grade is based primarily on factual memorization and recall, that’s what you’ll get from the student. A course grade should consist of varied types of assessment. Depending on the specific course, the student should show that he has not only learned the basic facts but also needs to show that he

·         understands how those facts fit into the larger picture

·         understands the relative importance or significance of the components of the subject

·         understands processes in the subject

·         has the ability to express the subject’s ideas accurately, clearly, and coherently

·         has the ability to do research in the subject

·         has the ability to reason, or extrapolate, from what he knows about the subject to other things that might be true

·         has the ability to evaluate whether those extrapolations are indeed true

·         has the ability to explain the impact this subject has on other areas of life

·         has the ability and the inclination to make moral decisions in the subject

Assessment Methods

All these things can’t be with true-false questions. At the early elementary level, students should be graded on their skill level in reading, writing, and calculating. As they progress to the core academic areas, older students need to be graded—held accountable—on varied kinds of activities that demonstrate all the competencies listed above. How can this be done?

·         What follows are some of the most common and effective assessment methods. Some require more time and effort to grade than others; some are suitable only beyond a certain level of educational experience; some are effective only when they’re used relatively rarely.

·         Objective testing is efficient as to time (especially when it’s machine graded) and very effective at testing basic factual understanding. It can be used to test higher levels of learning, but doing so requires considerable skill in the test writer.

o   Writing exercises are effective at demonstrating overall understanding of a concept and clarity of expression. They often require rubrics for the best student achievement and consistency in grading.

o   Short essays (one paragraph or less) can demonstrate a narrow competency and can be graded relatively efficiently. For example, “Summarize the main point of this article in one sentence.”

o   Longer essays can demonstrate the student’s ability to develop a concept (an argument, for example) and follow it through several stages.

o   Case studies can demonstrate the student’s ability to apply what he has learned in a real-world situation. Incidentally, case studies can be either written or oral (discussion) exercises.

o   Research papers can demonstrate judgment in the use of sources, comprehension of varying sources’ arguments, precision of thought and expression, and attention to detail.

o   Journals can demonstrate skills in describing and analyzing as well as giving the teacher insight into personal factors that may affect the student’s ability or inclination to perform well academically.

o   Creative writing can give the student opportunity to pursue areas of particular individual interest.

·         Oral presentations demonstrate the student’s ability in expressing himself extemporaneously, thereby demonstrating his familiarity with the subject and his ability to communicate clearly face to face.

o   If other students are allowed to question him after the presentation, the teacher can get further insight into his command of the subject area as well as his mental adeptness and his ability to respond calmly under stress or in the face of opposition.

o   Personal interviews give the teacher an opportunity to follow up on impressions and clarify the limits of the student’s understanding. Much of classical education, still practiced to some extent at such institutions as Cambridge and Oxford, relies on the personal interview as a primary assessment device.

o   Class or group discussions give the students opportunity to evaluate and respond to opposing ideas. Discussions need to be led; they typically are not efficient as to time if the teacher just lets the students go. That’s why whole careers have been built out of facilitating discussion groups.

·         Graphic reports encourage the student to develop skills different from those used in verbal and oral presentations. They encourage him to think more spatially and creatively as well as  to develop a sense of composition and beauty in design.

·         Physical performance, such as science labs, dramatic performances, and simulations, involve the student’s motor skills, thereby reinforcing the learning for most students. Further, the student’s choices at key decision points will often indicate his level of understanding.

For most of these exercises, the teacher and student can benefit by occasionally including either peer review or self-assessment.

Standardized Testing

Standardized testing is useful in showing how your students are doing relative to the rest of the student population, but it suffers from a number of weaknesses. Most obviously, since it is not aligned with the specific curriculum in your school, it is testing achievement only in a very broad sense. It’s not really a specific assessment of your student’s understanding of the instruction he received. Even attempts at the state level to align state standards with standardized tests appear unworkable because standards tend to be vague, while test questions need to be specific. “A teacher may faithfully and effectively teach to the standards all year and her students may learn a great deal, but her students may do poorly on the test simply because the teacher and the test developer interpreted the standards differently.”[9]

Further, in order to be gradable efficiently in large quantities, standardized tests have to limit their testing methods to a small subset of what is available. Many of the testing methods discussed in the previous section are not scalable: they can’t be applied cost-effectively to large numbers of students. Standardized tests can’t include research papers, for example, or oral presentations. There is evidence that even the relatively short essay writing sections on standardized tests are graded inconsistently,[10] and the cost for such subjective grading is significant.[11]

A final problem with standardized tests, especially because they are significant factors in college admission (they are “high-stakes” events), is that they tempt teachers to “teach the test” rather than the curriculum.[12] The kinds of useful educational activities that are not tested on the standardized tests—such as conducting lab experiments or giving group presentations—get less attention than they deserve. Further, many teachers spend considerable class time teaching how to take standardized tests rather than actual course content. Since a number of popular “test-taking techniques” ignore comprehension,[13] this classroom time is spent on a short-term benefit (a higher test score) with literally no long-term educational usefulness—and less time is left for what the student should actually be learning.

So standardized tests do serve a limited purpose, but they cannot be your primary assessment tool or even your most accurate one.

Conclusion

To know if you’re teaching effectively, you really need to gather information from many sources. Some of them will be quantifiable: tests, project grades, and so forth. Some will be highly subjective: the aura of the classroom, your students’ attitudes in class, and students’ anecdotal feedback after they graduate. A good steward of your educational calling will look for feedback from all of these sources, and others as well, to improve your teaching content and methods in order to have the greatest possible positive impact on all the students that providentially cross your path.

by Dr. Dan Olinger

[1] AFT President Randi Weingarten, “A Quality Agenda: How to Build Enduring Education Reform,” TEACH Conference, July 11,

[2] See, for example, David K. Cohen, “Learning to Teach Nothing in Particular,” American Educator, Winter 2010–2011, 45. This entire issue of this publication of the American Federation of Teachers is devoted to advocating a standardized national K–12 curriculum.

[3] For what it’s worth, many suggest that the economic troubles of modern America find their root in the general economic ignorance of the populace. Combining economics with U.S. government for that fourth year seems like a very good idea.

[4] The Common Core State Standards Initiative has recently proposed standards to bring participating states into alignment. This is a recent effort, and detailed analyses of the quality of the standards are not common; further, it remains to be seen how many states will participate. See the standards as currently formatted.

[5] This individualized expansion of the curriculum is obviously a central part of much home education. Traditional classroom teachers may have to confine themselves to areas in which large groups of students are interested or gifted, perhaps because of local history or similar factors.

[6] See, for example, Bryce Covert, “How We Teach Our Graduates Not to Teach.”

[7] In 2005 the average U.S. teacher salary was $5,266/month, or $63,192/year, for an average work week of 36.6 hours. The second-highest teacher salary was in the UK at about $5,000/ month, followed by Germany at a few cents less. Incidentally, U.S. teacher salaries were at 136% of U.S. median household income for 2005, which was $46,326. Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Cheryl Hill Lee, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60-231, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2006), 6.

[8] See, for just one example of many, “No More Reform Fads.”

[9] Laura S. Hamilton, “Testing What Has Been Taught,” American Educator, Winter 2010–2011, 49.

[10] AFT President Randi Weingarten, “A Quality Agenda: How to Build Enduring Education Reform,” TEACH Conference, July 11, 2011.

[11] Illinois has recently decided not to include writing on standardized tests because of the grading expense. See “Standardized exam edited down to state.”

[12] They tempt the teachers and administrators to do a lot more than that. Cheating on the test—by teachers and administrators—does occur. See, for example, cases in Baltimore, Washington, and Atlanta. At the time of writing, investigation was ongoing in several locations in the Midwest.

[13] For example, students are taught that the longest choice in a multiple-choice question is usually the correct one. See “Test taking strategies, skills, & techniques.”

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Category: Assessments

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Further, while using the Service, Members and visitors agree not to:

 

-upload content directly to the Service

 

- upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any content, material, or information to, on, or through the Service that is fraudulent, unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, pornographic, profane, sexually explicit or indecent, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable;

 

- upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available to Members or visitors any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” “affiliate links,” or any other form of solicitation;

 

- transmit any worms or viruses, spyware, malware, or any other harmful or destructive code;

 

- violate any applicable federal or local laws in your jurisdiction (including but not limited to intellectual property laws or tax laws);

 

- use the Service for any illegal or unauthorized purpose;

 

- impersonate any person or entity, including without limitation, a BJU Press employee or Teacher Tools Online® user, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;

 

- transmit email or any other content that includes personal or identifying information about another person without that person’s explicit consent;

 

- transmit email or any other content that is false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, or constitutes “bait and switch”;

 

- offer stolen goods and/or materials that infringe a patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of another person, or entity or that violate any rights of privacy or publicity, or that defame or libel any person or entity, or offer content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (including without limitation any goods purchased or obtained by you without right of resale such as promotional materials or school market-restricted materials);

 

- include hyperlinks, on Teacher Tools Online®, to the website of any other platform or service offering or facilitating the sale of teaching materials or other educational products.

 

- advertise any illegal products or services or the sale of any items the sale of which is prohibited or restricted by applicable law, including without limitation items the sale of which is prohibited or regulated by applicable law;

 

- provide materials or any other content for download that contain viruses or any other code, files, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;

 

- disrupt the normal flow of dialogue with an excessive number of messages (flooding attack) to the Service, or in any manner that otherwise negatively affects Members’ and visitors’ ability to use the Service;

 

- employ misleading email or IP addresses, or forged headers, or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of content transmitted through the Service;

 

- attempt to gain unauthorized access to Teacher Tools Online®’s computer systems or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of, the Service;

 

- attempt to regain access to Teacher Tools Online® following a ban or account termination, including without limitation by means of opening or attempting to open a new account under the same or different Username;

 

- “stalk” or otherwise harass anyone on or through the Service;

 

- collect any personally identifying data about Members or visitors for commercial or unlawful purposes; or

 

- use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from the Service-except for internet search engines (e.g., Google or Yahoo!) and non-commercial public archives (e.g., archive.org) that comply with our robots.txt file, or that are “well-behaved” web services/RSS/Atom clients. We reserve the right to define what we mean by “well-behaved,” and to develop, invoke, or utilize any means to disrupt, diminish the quality of, interfere with the performance of, or impair the functionality of any automated means you may use to access the Service.

4. User Behavior:

You are fully responsible for your behavior on Teacher Tools Online®, which includes the way that you utilize any aspect of the Teacher Tools Online® service.

1. You are completely and solely responsible for the content you post on Teacher Tools Online®, which includes, but is not limited to, photos, messages, chat, personal profiles, community posts, broadcasts, blogs, events, audio and video clips. Unauthorized or illegal content includes, but is not limited to:

(a) the display of sexually explicit material

(b) the display of abusive, harmful, racially or religiously offensive or bigoted, obscene, or libelous material.

(c) the use of flaming or trolling

(d) the display of material that encourages criminal behavior that violates any local, state, national, or international law or regulation.

(e) the use of the Service for unauthorized advertising, which includes MLM/pyramid schemes, spam, chain letters, sweepstakes or contests.

(f) the transmission of viruses, worms, or Trojan horses to destroy or limit any functionality of the software or hardware of Teacher Tools Online® and its users.

(g) the display of information about another person without their express consent, or the posting of any copyrighted material that you do not have legal authorization to use.

BJU Press has the right, in its sole discretion, to determine whether content is unauthorized, offensive, harmful, illegal, or in violation of the rights of others.

2. You agree and understand that BJU Press can delete any content that is offensive, illegal, harmful, or in violation of the rights of other.

3. You understand and agree that you can only use Teacher Tools Online® for academic use. You cannot use Teacher Tools Online® for any commercial or business purposes.

4. Any member who demonstrably harasses or abuses another member will be removed from Teacher Tools Online®.

5. Other unauthorized or illegal behaviors include, but are not limited to:

(a) the display of false information about yourself or anyone else

(b) changing, in any manner at all, or reverse engineering any aspect of Teacher Tools Online®. You may not attempt to derive source code from the Teacher Tools Online® service.

(c) the use of any search/retrieval application (e.g., robot, spider) to index any aspect of Teacher Tools Online®

(d) the posting of information that implicitly or explicitly implies that it is endorsed by Teacher Tools Online®

 

5. Inappropriate User-Submitted Content.

 

Teacher Tools Online® prohibits certain user conduct and content described above and, without obligation, will use reasonable efforts to eliminate such conduct and content from the Service. Nevertheless, you acknowledge and agree that (i) Teacher Tools Online® is not and cannot be responsible for any content, information, or materials posted by users on the Service, (ii) you may be exposed to any such materials, information, or content, and (iii) you must bear all risks associated with the exposure to and/or use of any such materials, information, or content, including without limitation any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such materials, information, or content. Without limitation of the foregoing, Teacher Tools Online® has the right to, but may or may not, pre-screen and/or monitor content posted on the Service, and without limiting any remedies, may remove, edit, move, or close, in whole or in part, any content, information or materials, or thread or posting in any chat room and/or similar feature on the Service, at any time for any reason, in Teacher Tools Online®’s sole discretion.

 

6. Links to Other Sites and Resources.

 

The Service contains links to other websites or resources. Teacher Tools Online® has no control over such external sites and resources. You agree that (i) Teacher Tools Online® is not responsible for the availability or accuracy of such external sites and resources, and (ii) Teacher Tools Online® does not endorse nor is it responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, services or materials on or available from such external sites and resources. Any reliance on the contents or services of such an external website or resource is done at your own risk and you assume all responsibilities and consequences resulting from such reliance.

 

7. Copyright Infringement:

BJU Press respects copyright and other laws. BJU Press requires all users to comply with copyright and other laws.

BJU Press does not provide you with file-sharing ability so that you can violate the copyright of third parties.

As a member of Teacher Tools Online®, you agree that you must not use Teacher Tools Online® to infringe the intellectual property of others in any way. The unauthorized reproduction, distribution, modification, or posting of copyrighted work is a violation of copyright law.

You are responsible for your behavior on Teacher Tools Online® and for making sure that it does not violate any copyright laws. If you violate copyright laws, then you may be exposed to civil and criminal liability, including possible fines and jail time.

We respect the intellectual property rights of others, and we ask that our Members and users do the same. It is our policy to disable access to or remove material that we believe in good faith to be infringing on a copyrighted work. We also disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who we believe in good faith are repeatedly infringing copyrighted works. Our Copyright Policy has been developed in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and other applicable laws. By accepting these Terms of Service, you agree to be bound by our Copyright Policy, which is by this reference expressly incorporated into this Agreement.

 

8. Privacy Policy

 

We take the privacy of our users’ and Members’ information very seriously. Our Privacy Policy is available at www.TeacherToolsOnline.com/Privacy-Policy. By accepting these Terms of Service, you agree to be bound by our Privacy Policy, which is by this reference expressly incorporated into this Agreement.

 

9. Indemnity

 

By accepting this Agreement, you agree, at your expense, to indemnify, defend, and hold BJU PRESS and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, employees, partners, and licensors harmless from and against any and all loss, cost, damages, claims, demands, liabilities, expenses, or tax assessments, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of any claim made by any third party or any action taken by any governmental or regulatory body (including, without limitation, the Federal Trade Commission or any state attorney general), due to, arising out of, or relating to actions or allegations of infringement based on information, data or content you submitted in connection with the service, (i) any fraud or manipulation, or other breach of this agreement by you, or (ii) third party claims, actions or allegations brought against BJU Press arising out of your use of the service or software, (iii) any product, content, information, or materials that you submit, purchase, post, transmit, provide, or otherwise make available through the Service, (iv) your use of the Service, (v) your connection to the Service, (vi) your actual or alleged breach of this Agreement (including our Copyright Policy and Privacy Policy), (vii) your actual or alleged infringement of any third party intellectual property or proprietary rights, or (viii) your actual or alleged violation of any applicable laws, rules, regulations, or rights of another.

 

 

10. Warranty Disclaimers

 

YOU AGREE THAT THE SITE AND THE SERVICE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, AND THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE PROVIDED BY BJU PRESS SHALL BE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, BJU PRESS, ITS AFFILIATES, AND ITS AND THEIR OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN CONNECTION WITH THE WEBSITE, THE SERVICE, AND YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE THEREOF, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. BJU PRESS MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE CREDIBILITY OF THE MEMBERS OF THE SERVICE; THAT MEMBERS WILL PERFORM AS PROMISED; ABOUT THE TRUTHFULNESS, ACCURACY, OR COMPLETENESS OF THE SERVICE’S CONTENT OR THE CONTENT OF ANY SITES LINKED TO THIS SERVICE; ABOUT THE AVAILABILITY, QUALITY, CHARACTERISTICS, LEGITIMACY, FUNCTIONALITY, PRICING, SHIPPING, DELIVERY, SECURITY, OR SAFETY OF ANY PRODUCTS OR CONTENT LISTED FOR SALE ON THIS SERVICE; OR ABOUT ANY PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS OR PRODUCT LITERATURE. BJU PRESS ALSO MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES THAT THE CONTENTS OF THE SERVICE OR ANY PRODUCTS LISTED FOR SALE ON THE SERVICE ARE FIT FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR WILL MEET ANY USER’S REQUIREMENTS, AND ASSUMES NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY (I) ERRORS, MISTAKES, OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT, (II) PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE, OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICE, (III) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SECURE SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND/OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN, (IV) ANY INTERRUPTION OR CESSATION OF TRANSMISSION TO OR FROM THE SERVICE, (IV) ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR THE LIKE, WHICH MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO OR THROUGH THE SERVICE BY ANY THIRD PARTY, AND/OR (V) ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT, OR FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF ANY PRODUCT OR CONTENT POSTED, EMAILED, TRANSMITTED, SOLD, OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE VIA THE SERVICE. BJU PRESS DOES NOT WARRANT, ENDORSE, GUARANTEE, OR ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE ADVERTISED OR OFFERED BY A THIRD PARTY THROUGH THE SERVICE OR ANY HYPERLINKED WEBSITE, OR FEATURED IN ANY BANNER OR OTHER ADVERTISING, AND BJU PRESS WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO OR IN ANY WAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING ANY TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. AS WITH THE PURCHASE OF A PRODUCT OR SERVICE THROUGH ANY MEDIUM OR IN ANY ENVIRONMENT, YOU SHOULD USE YOUR BEST JUDGMENT AND EXERCISE CAUTION WHERE APPROPRIATE. ADDITIONALLY, BJU PRESS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS THAT RESULT FROM MEMBERS DIRECTLY CONTACTING OTHER MEMBERS OR FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS RESULTING FROM TRANSACTIONS CONDUCTED OUTSIDE OF THE SERVICE, INCLUDING TRANSACTIONS THAT MAY ORIGINATE THROUGH THE SERVICE BUT ARE TAKEN OFFLINE OR OUTSIDE OF THE SERVICE. BJU PRESS AND ITS AFFILIATES, PARTNERS, AND CONSULTANTS DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR THE CONTENT, COMPLETENESS, ACCURACY, LEGALITY, RELIABILITY, OR AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION OR MATERIALS DISPLAYED ON TEACHER TOOLS ONLINE®. YOU AGREE THAT THE USE OF THE SERVICE AND ANYTHING THING THAT YOU DOWNLOAD FROM TEACHER TOOLS ONLINE® SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK, DISCRETION, AND RESPONSIBILITY. YOU WILL BE WHOLLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM THAT RESULTS FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE OR THE DOWNLOADING OF INFORMATION. TEACHER TOOLS ONLINE® DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL RESPONSIBILITY AND LIABILITY FOR THE CONDUCT OF ANY MEMBER. TEACHER TOOLS ONLINE® WILL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY INTERACTIONS YOU HAVE WITH OTHER INDIVIDUALS OR ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH THE LMS. YOU AGREE THAT BJU PRESS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOSS THAT OCCURS AS A RESULT OF SUCH INTERACTIONS AND THAT BJU PRESS _ HAS NO OBLIGATION TO BECOME INVOLVED IN ANY SUCH DISPUTES; FURTHER, YOU RELEASE BJU PRESS FROM DAMAGES OF ANY KIND THAT ARISE FROM SUCH DISPUTES. TEACHER TOOLS ONLINE® OFFERS ALL OF ITS SERVICE ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER. TEACHER TOOLS ONLINE® EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED, AND STATUTORY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS.

 

 

11. Limitation of Liability

IN NO EVENT, SITUATION, OR CIRCUMSTANCE WILL BJU PRESS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OR RESULTING FROM YOUR USE OF TEACHER TOOLS ONLINE®, WHETHER OR NOT BJU PRESS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS INCLUDES, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGES FROM UPLOADED OR DOWNLOADED THIRD PARTY CONTENT, AND DAMAGES FROM THE INTERRUPTION OR TERMINATION OF THE TEACHER TOOLS ONLINE® SERVICES. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OF EXCLUSION OF LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IN NO EVENT, SITUATION, OR CIRCUMSTANCE WILL BJU PRESS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR AN AMOUNT EXCEEDING FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($500.00).

YOU AGREE THAT BJU PRESS, ITS AFFILIATES, AND ITS AND THEIR OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND/OR AGENTS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, REPUTATION, USE, OR DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, RESULTING FROM: (I) THE ACCESS TO, USE, OR THE INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICE; (II) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION, OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO, THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE; (III) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (IV) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; OR (V) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE. SOME STATES OR OTHER JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. BJU PRESS’ LIABILITY TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY SHALL IN NO EVENT BE, IN THE AGGREGATE, GREATER THAN THE LESSER OF (A) THE TOTAL AMOUNTS PAID BY YOU TO BJU PRESS DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRIOR TO THE CLAIM OR ACTION ALLEGEDLY GIVING RISE TO SUCH LIABILITY, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($500.00).

 

YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THAT BY ACCESSING AND USING THE SERVICE AND AGREEING TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MAY BE WAIVING RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO CLAIMS THAT ARE AT THIS TIME UNKNOWN OR UNSUSPECTED. IF YOU ARE A CALIFORNIA RESIDENT, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTOOD, AND HEREBY EXPRESSLY WAIVE, THE SECTION 1542 OF THE CIVIL CODE OF CALIFORNIA, WHICH PROVIDES AS FOLLOWS: “A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR.” FURTHERMORE, IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT OF ANOTHER STATE OR JURISDICTION, YOU AGREE TO WAIVE IN ADVANCE ANY SIMILAR LAWS OF SUCH OTHER STATE OR JURISDICTION.

 

12. Termination

 

BJU Press can refuse membership to anyone at its sole discretion. In addition, Teacher Tools Online® can terminate the membership and delete any related information of any member at any time for any reason. If BJU Press terminates your membership, then you can no longer use the Teacher Tools Online® service or the services of any of its affiliates.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate, or take any other action or remedy that we deem reasonable, appropriate, or necessary, in our sole discretion, with respect to your Member Account immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason. If we terminate your account, your right to use the Service will immediately cease. You may terminate your Member Account at any time and for any reason, and we will make available through the Service reasonable means for you to do so. When these terms come to an end, those terms that by their nature are intended to continue indefinitely will continue to apply, including but not limited to, ownership provisions, licenses, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, and limitations of liability.

 

13. Miscellaneous Provisions

 

- Ownership of Site. This site, the Service, and all text, graphics, user interfaces, visual interfaces, photographs, trademarks, logos, sounds, music, artwork, content, and computer code therein (collectively, the “Teacher Tools Online® Content”), including without limitation the design, structure, selection, coordination, expression, “look and feel,” and arrangement of such Content is owned, controlled, or licensed by or to Teacher Tools Online®, and is protected by trade dress, trade secret, copyright, patent, and trademark laws, and various other intellectual property rights.

 

Except as expressly provided in this Agreement or otherwise permitted by law, no Teacher Tools Online® Content may be used, copied, reproduced, modified, republished, disassembled, reverse engineered, uploaded, posted, publicly displayed, publicly performed, publicly performed by means of a digital audio transmission, encoded, translated, transmitted, or distributed in any way to any other person, computer, server, website, or in any other medium for any purpose, without Teacher Tools Online®’s express prior written consent.

 

- Entire Agreement. The Terms of Service, including Teacher Tools Online®’s Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference above, constitute the entire agreement between you and Teacher Tools Online® and governs your use of the Service.

 

- No Agency. Teacher Tools Online® is not the agent or representative of any site users, nor does it operate under their authority for any purpose.

- Governing and Applicable Law. This Terms of Service Agreement is governed in all respects by the laws of the State of South Carolina, USA without regard to its conflict of law provisions. In the event of any dispute related to this Agreement, the parties will attempt resolution pursuant to biblical principles utilizing negotiation and mediation. If this is unsuccessful for any reason, disputes arising hereunder shall be submitted to state or federal courts in Greenville, South Carolina, and you agree to and consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts. The Service is operated by BJU Education Group, Inc. from its offices in South Carolina, in the United States of America. BJU PRESS makes no representation that materials or content on the Service are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who choose to access the Service from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable. Software from this site is further subject to United States export controls. No software from www.TeacherToolsOnline.com may be downloaded or otherwise exported or re-exported (i) into (or to a national or resident of) Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria or any other country to which the United States has embargoed goods; (ii) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Commerce Department’s Table of Deny Orders; or (iii) in any other manner that violates U.S. law. By downloading or using any software, you represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list.

 

- Dispute Resolution_: Any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or the Service shall be submitted exclusively to confidential binding arbitration in Greenville, SC, except that to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate BJU PRESS’s intellectual property rights, we may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in any state or federal court in the State of South Carolina. You hereby consent to, and waive all defenses of lack of personal jurisdiction and forum non conveniens with respect to venue and jurisdiction in the state and federal courts of South Carolina. Arbitration under these Terms of Use shall be conducted pursuant to the Commercial Arbitration Rules then prevailing at the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator's award shall be final and binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, no arbitration under this Agreement shall be joined to an arbitration involving any other party subject to this Agreement, whether through class action proceedings or otherwise. If a suit, action, arbitration or other proceeding of any nature whatsoever is instituted in connection with any dispute or controversy arising out of or related to the subject matter of this Agreement, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover from the non-prevailing party, in addition to any other available remedy, all reasonable costs, including without limitation court costs, attorneys’ fees, and other expenses incurred in such proceeding.

 

- Waiver and Severability. The failure of BJU PRESS to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Service shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of this Terms of Service shall be held unlawful, void, or unenforceable for any reason, then that provision shall be deemed severed from this Terms of Service and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions. The severed provision shall be deemed modified so that its purpose can be lawfully effectuated and enforced.

 

- Notices. Teacher Tools Online® may provide you with notices, including, without limitation, those regarding changes to the Terms of Service, product updates, teacher conferences, and other service-related announcements, by email or postings on the Service.

 

- BJU PRESS may change or amend these Terms. If we make material changes, we will notify you, either through the user interface, in an email notification, or through other reasonable means. Your use of the Service after the date such change(s) become effective will constitute consent to the changed terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you must immediately stop using the Service. Otherwise the new terms will apply to you.

 

- Future Changes in the Service. BJU Press reserves the right at any time (and from time to time) to modify, suspend, or discontinue providing the Service or any part thereof with or without notice. BJU Press will not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension, or discontinuance of the Service.

 

- Assignment. BJU Press may assign this agreement to any successor or purchaser of BJU PRESS or all or substantially all of its assets.

 

- Headings. Section titles and headings in this Agreement are for convenience only, and have no legal or contractual effect.

 

- Trademarks. BJU Press, the BJU Press logo, Teacher Tools Online®, Shop Talk, and other BJU Press logos and names are trademarks of BJU Education Group, Inc. You agree not to display or use these trademarks in any manner without prior, written consent of BJU Education Group, Inc.

 

- If any aspect of this agreement is deemed invalid, then the remaining provisions shall still be enforced.

You may not assign or transfer this Agreement or any of your rights or obligations hereunder, and any attempt to the contrary is void.

BJU Press is not responsible for any delay or failure in performance resulting directly or indirectly from causes beyond BJU Press's reasonable control.

Any correspondence about this Agreement will be sent to you via the email that you provided during registration.

14. International Use:

If you are not a resident of the United States of America, then you agree to follow all applicable laws and local rules regarding the transmission of data from the United States or the country in which you live.

We hope that you enjoy your use of Teacher Tools Online®. These Terms of Service are necessary and allow us to offer this Service to you – our valued user. Official correspondence must be sent through postal mail to:

BJU Press Customer Service
1700 Wade Hampton, Blvd.
Greenville, SC 29614

This Terms of Service represents the complete, entire, and exclusive understanding and agreement between you and Teacher Tools Online®. It supersedes all prior, written or oral, understandings or agreements. You understand and agree that you have read these Terms of Service and that amendments can be posted to this Terms of Service. You agree and understand that your continued use of the Service represents your consent to such amended terms.