Every classroom should have a well-educated, professional teacher, and school systems should recruit, prepare, and retain teachers who are qualified to do the job. Yet in practice, American public schools generally do a poor job of systematically developing and evaluating teachers. Many policy makers have recently come to believe that this failure…

Parents, practitioners, and policymakers agree that the key to improving public education in America is placing highly skilled and effective teachers in all classrooms. Yet the nation still lacks a practical set of standards and assessments that can guarantee that teachers, particularly new teachers, are well prepared and ready to teach. This…

Recent policy interest in tying student learning to teacher evaluation has led to growing use of value-added methods for assessing student learning gains linked to individual teachers. VAM analyses rely on complex assumptions about the roles of schools, multiple teachers, student aptitudes and efforts, homes and families in producing measured…

Explores the role of teacher evaluation and suggests ways professionalism might be achieved through the evaluation process. Recommends that peer review might be an important means of defining and enforcing professional standards in teaching. (DR)

Observes the increasing use of class test scores for rating teachers and reviews arguments against this practice. Cites research pointing to a variety of influences on standardized test scores other than teacher performance. Concludes that teacher evaluation must incorporate a variety of measures. (KH)

Productive strategies for evaluating outcomes are becoming increasingly important for the improvement, and even the survival, of teacher education. This article describes a set of research and assessment strategies used to evaluate program outcomes in the Stanford Teacher Education Program during a period of program redesign over the past 5 years.…

The rewards and sanctions accompanying performance-based pay and promotion programs will not be valued or given credibility as long as teacher evaluations are not approached professionally. The effect of treating teachers as bureaucrats or professionals, the limits of bureaucratic evaluation, and the demands of professional evaluation are…

Research findings suggest that methods used to improve teaching are as important as the goals. Solutions sought should be those that professionalize the practice of teaching and make education sufficiently attractive to recruit and retain talented people as teachers. (MLF)

This article presents a conceptual framework for examining the design and implementation of teacher evaluation processes in school organizations. Research on teaching, organizational behavior, and policy implementation suggests that different educational and organizational theories underlie various teacher evaluation models. (Author/BW)

Del Schalock, Mark Schalock, and David Myton suggest that the education profession is stuck on an "input" teacher-assessment approach that fails to consider effects on student learning. They offer the Oregon Work Sampling Methodology as an exemplary alternative to portfolios and performance assessments. Although the Oregon WSM is a…

Teacher educators and teachers must be leaders in developing learner-centered standards for preparing teachers. Standards can help teachers build their own knowledge and understanding of what helps students learn. As schools undergo restructuring, teachers will be responsible for students, not just subject-matter information; for understanding how…

This report examines recent trends in the establishment of state-level policies for beginning teacher evaluation and supervision. The state role in defining the experiences and clinical preparation of beginning teachers increased substantially during the 1980s; there are, however, important differences in how states approach this responsibility.…

This book argues that the current process for teacher licensing does not always guarantee competence in the classroom, and it offers advice on how to prepare and evaluate aspiring teachers for the challenges of their profession. It places Minnesota's experience in the context of current reform efforts and suggests that developing and requiring a…

Examines how many teacher education programs are using authentic assessments of teaching (cases, exhibitions, portfolios, and action research) to support teacher learning for today's diverse schools. Using specific teacher education programs as examples, the article discusses how and why these strategies support teacher learning and more valid…

This paper examines the practice of successful urban teachers, exploring the validity of National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) urban teacher assessments. Results from a literature review and empirical evidence indicate that successful teaching occurs when…