Governors and other state leaders have shown an increasing interest in creating new models of teacher compensation that would reward educators based on their contributions to student learning. To support this interest, the National Governors Association (NGA) hosted a policy academy focusing on that issue. The policy academy provided teams with…

It has been widely publicized that approximately 98% of the teachers in the United States are rated as satisfactory (Weisberg, Sexton, Mulhern, & Keeling, 2009). This has led many Americans to think that there are very few ineffective teachers in the United States. But is this true? This study indicated that a majority of the principals in the…

The purpose of the study is to show the various perceptions teachers have on merit pay. This research was designed to examine the perceptions and attitudes of teachers towards the idea of performance based pay. This topic has been an ongoing battle within school systems since the 1800s. The participants in this study were teachers from the state…

In 2011, the Indiana General Assembly passed a broad and ambitious reform package that significantly altered how teachers and principals are evaluated. Senate Enrolled Act 001 (SEA 1) requires: (1) annual evaluation for all certificated employees; (2) objective measures of student achievement and growth; (3) rigorous measures of effectiveness; (4)…

The evaluation, improvement, and accountability of teachers has been the topic of the nation throughout the era of No Child Left Behind. Where some critics point to a business model of measuring outputs (i.e., student achievement scores on standardized tests) to evaluate teacher performance, others will advocate for a fair evaluation system that…

This quantitative study investigated reasons that school principals recommend non-renewal of probationary teachers' contracts. Principals in the Southeast and Midwest completed an emailed survey. The ordinal nature of the data gathered dictated that comparisons be made between groups using the Mann Whitney U. The study investigated the barriers…

The term "best practice" is commonly used to describe "what works" in a specific situation or environment. When principals face a thorny challenge, they turn to their colleagues in the principalship for ideas about which strategies, activities, and approaches have proved to be effective and efficient in addressing the issue.…

Created by the U.S. Congress in 2006, the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) represents the first federal initiative targeted directly at state and district efforts to introduce performance measures into educator compensation. TIF responds to a growing body of evidence that existing pay structures do not respond to labor force realities or adequately…

In a period such as this, marked by extreme political partisanship and apparent gridlock at the federal level, it would be tempting to throw up one's hands in frustration. But this is just the time that a foundation like Joyce can add the most value--because the Joyce team members are non-partisan, not subject to the pressures of political and…

Principals know that effective teachers are the greatest school-based contributors to improved student outcomes. What is not always clear is how principals can help teachers adapt their instructional practices to the increasingly diverse learning styles they find in their classrooms. Teacher evaluation practices are typically not seen as a tool…

In 2011, Indiana's legislature reshaped the state's education policy landscape with a package of laws that enabled local leaders to make swift and potentially sweeping changes to district and school operations. The Hoosier State's reforms, dubbed by supporters as the "Putting Students First" agenda, provide a valuable case study of the…

As one part of a broad reform package, the 2011 Indiana General Assembly passed Senate Enrolled Act 001 (Public Law 90), a bill that significantly changed the way Indiana teachers will be evaluated and compensated. An earlier Center for Evaluation & Education Policy (CEEP) policy brief, "Revamping the Teacher Evaluation Process"…

If education in Indiana is to dramatically improve, the systems and policies that collectively shape the learning experiences for students must be re-imagined. In the spring of 2011, the Indiana legislature passed IC 20-28-11.5, a new law relating to the evaluation of all certified teaching staff and administrators. Prior to this legislation,…

In the winter and spring of 2008-2009, The New Teacher Project (TNTP) partnered with the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) and the Indianapolis Education Association (IEA), at the request of The Mind Trust to analyze district human capital policies and practices and make recommendations to increase the concentration of high-quality teachers in IPS…

This technical brief describes state-level policies and procedural requirements for guiding teacher evaluation practices at the district level in the seven states served by the Midwest Regional Educational Laboratory: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Building on the Issues & Answers report "Examining…