Just a few years ago, tenure appeared low on the reform list for state policy makers and district administrators, viewed as too hot an issue politically to challenge. But it was front and center in the 2014 landmark "Vergara v. California" lawsuit, which challenged teacher tenure and related policies. Yet whether to grant tenure or not…

Policy makers at the federal level have embraced an educator effectiveness agenda, which in turn has driven many states across the country to rapidly develop and implement new and more complex teacher evaluation systems. It is increasingly clear that the success of these nascent teacher evaluation systems partly depends on the will, skill and…

High-quality training is a crucial investment in establishing and maintaining implementation fidelity as well as building educators' trust in the new process. Training approaches for educator evaluation vary both in format (i.e., how it's delivered) and content (i.e., what is provided). Train-the-trainer sessions, online professional learning…

Representatives of five Race to the Top grantees--Delaware, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island--gathered in Providence, Rhode Island on December 12, 2012 under the auspices of the Quality Evaluation Rollout (QER) Working Group to plan strategies for improving communication between teachers and State education agencies (SEAs) on…

Traditional paper portfolios have been used to assess student work for performance and employment purposes for decades. The advent of electronic portfolios incorporating audio, video, hyperlinked documents and scanned images takes the use of portfolios to a new level. Evaluators can use these easily accessible portfolios to gauge student…

This NEPC Policy Memo presents the text of a letter from Drs. Burris and Welner to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The letter was invited by Secretary Duncan during a phone conversation with Dr. Burris. It offers concrete guiding principles for evaluation of educators and suggestions for a way forward. (Contains 11 notes.)

Leadership matters. Principals are the primary drivers of school improvement and the best long-term investment to ensure effective teaching and learning at scale. Principals are central to State efforts to implement new college and career-ready standards, execute teacher evaluation and support systems and turn around low-performing schools. These…

The ultimate goal of teacher evaluation systems is to improve the quality of instruction by clarifying expectations for effective teaching and helping teachers meet those expectations through high-quality feedback and support. Classroom observations -- which make up the majority of a teacher's summative rating in most States and districts -- give…

This article reports on how states strive to overhaul their teacher tenure policies. Over the past year, a handful of states have begun to overhaul their tenure-granting processes by increasing the number of years it takes teachers to win due process rights, and by trying to improve the evaluations that are supposed to guide determinations of…

With the conclusion of the second round of the federal Race to the Top competition, states across the country--winners and losers alike--are vowing to move forward with ambitious plans to reshape teacher-evaluation systems, fix struggling schools, revamp antiquated data systems, and make other changes aimed at raising student achievement. Yet…

In the wake of the Common Core State Standards and teacher evaluation reform, school leaders increasingly look to district leaders for support, coaching, and leadership. District leaders--superintendents, assistant or area superintendents, specialists, principal supervisors, and school business administrators--can hold varying and multiple roles…

Amid the cacophony of special interests fighting to be heard in statehouses and on Capitol Hill, a cadre of current and former chief state school officers is elbowing its way into the nation's education debate at a time when states are taking more control of K-12 education. A little more than a year old, Chiefs for Change is an invitation-only…

This publication describes new ways that States redesigning their educator effectiveness systems are measuring growth in student achievement, including value-added models and student learning objectives. The publication concludes with a brief discussion of communicating the results of student growth measures, such as monitoring correlations…

Established in the 142,000-student Montgomery County, Maryland, district in 1999, peer assistance and review (PAR)--or "peer review," as it is occasionally called--is actually an old idea. In 1981, the then-president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers, Dal Lawrence, helped create the first PAR program. Almost 30 years later, only a…

A teacher's effectiveness--the most important factor for schools in improving student achievement--is not measured, recorded, or used to inform decision making in any meaningful way. The failure of evaluation systems to provide accurate and credible information about individual teachers' instructional performance sustains and reinforces a…