Today, efforts are underway across the country to transform teacher evaluation into a useful tool for improving teaching and learning. These efforts are supported by state statutes as well as by improvements in state and local data systems and the development of new student assessments. In 2015, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ)…

Comprehensive teacher evaluation systems are a core element of current state and local strategies to support improved teaching and learning in elementary and secondary education in the United States. The Study of Emerging Teacher Evaluation Systems provides descriptive information on the design and early implementation of teacher evaluation…

In this article, Jeremy Sullivan explores the history of teacher evaluations in Montgomery County, Maryland. He describes how, over the course of three decades, the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) established itself as a strong and powerful professional association and leveraged its power to institutionalize a more collaborative…

The Baltimore City Public Schools made national headlines late last year when the district adopted a new contract designed to take student learning and teacher professionalism to the next level. The three-year deal replaced conventional approaches to compensation--regular pay increases based on years in the system--with a new approach that gives…

These days, everyone seems to be wringing their hands about how to construct new evaluation systems that will make teachers better. This unnecessary angst has led to crazy experiments in reform that have embraced churn for the sake of churn, put school districts at risk, and demoralized many of the most talented teachers. A few school districts,…

In February 2011, the U.S. Department of Education (ED)--along with co-sponsors from the American Association of School Administrators, the American Federation of Teachers, the Council of the Great City Schools, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the National Education Association, and the National School Boards Association--brought…

Over the past decade, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland has focused on improving teacher capacity as a strategy to address achievement gaps and promote "college-ready" standards in what has become an "urban suburb" with significant pockets of high-need students. As part of this focus on quality teaching, the…

The 2009 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" provided a comprehensive review of states' policies that impact the teaching profession. As a companion to last year's comprehensive state-by-state analysis, the 2010 edition provides each state with an individualized "Blueprint for Change," building off last year's "Yearbook"…