This report offers state leaders key areas for action to continue progress in implementing evaluation systems, even as federal policies on teacher evaluation relax state requirements. The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) offers its current best thinking for how state agencies can make the smartest use of funds, time and partners to refine…

Teacher leadership is often defined as a "set of practices that enhance the teaching profession." States and districts are leveraging teacher leadership in multiple ways to professionalize teaching, create opportunities for teacher career advancement, facilitate school improvement, and facilitate professional learning for educator and…

Policymakers have turned to teacher evaluation as one way to ensure accountability for school reform. In most evaluation systems, the emphasis focuses on the external: test scores, observations of classroom practices, rubric based assessments, student feedback, evaluation, and student work. While these activities have a place in professional…

There are many assessment initiatives and policy changes happening in Illinois concerning learning and teaching expectations that involve K-12 students, teacher candidates, and current teachers. The Illinois State Board of Education has adopted new Math and English Language Arts standards for K-12 education known as the "New Illinois State…

Real-time coaching has become the go-to supervisory model in some schools (especially charters), with supervisors routinely jumping in during teacher observations and sometimes taking over the class to model a more effective approach. The author sets out goals and guidelines for impromptu classroom visits that include visiting each classroom at…

Depicted variously as heroes, villains, or victims, America's teachers find themselves at the center of a sometimes nasty policy debate. Yet, while politicians, reformers, and pundits contribute to the cacophony that serves as our national conversation about education, those who teach our children everyday are barely heard over the noise. This…

This publication summarizes the key discussion from experts in the field of measuring student growth during a convening held February 2015. Experts heard about two emerging approaches to measuring growth: Portfolios of student work samples and unit value-added models that provide teachers with timely and actionable feedback that they can use to…

This special report provides context and examples of new legislation impacting preparation, certification, induction, professional development, evaluation and compensation for leaders of schools and districts.

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) and Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program grants have encouraged and supported grantees to develop coherent and comprehensive human capital management systems (HCMS). The goal of such systems is to recruit, select, place, induct, develop, pay, and retain educators with the competencies they need to realize…

This report describes an initiative undertaken from 2016-2017 by the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution and Education International (EI) to develop tools to measure the breadth of learning opportunities to which children and youth are exposed in an education system. The Breadth of Learning Opportunities (BOLO)…

Observation systems are increasingly used around the world for a variety of purposes; 2 critical purposes are to understand and to improve teaching. As observation systems differ considerably, individuals must decide what observation system to use. But the field does not have a common specification of an observation system, nor does it have…

Higher education stakeholders are increasingly aware of the need for systematic continuous professional development opportunities for university teachers. This report reflects the outcomes of the work of European University Association's (EUA) Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group on "Continuous development of teaching…

In Michigan, 98 percent of teachers were rated effective or better under new teacher-evaluation systems recently put in place. In Florida, 97 percent of teachers were deemed effective or better. Principals in Tennessee judged 98 percent of teachers to be "at expectations" or better last school year, while evaluators in Georgia gave good…

In this article, we describe how a peer-coaching model has been applied to support community-based Extension programming through the Children, Youth, and Families at Risk (CYFAR) initiative. We describe the general approaches to coaching that have been used to help with CYFAR program implementation, evaluation, and sustainability efforts; we…

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…