After decades of disinterest, evaluation of the performance of elementary and secondary teachers in the United States has become an important educational policy issue. As U.S. states and districts have tried to upgrade their evaluation processes, one of the models that has been increasingly used is the Framework for Teaching. This paper summarizes…

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…

Policymakers are increasingly adopting "pay-for-performance" policies in which teachers are compensated based on their performance as measured by classroom evaluations and/or student achievement test results. Prior research has produced largely inconclusive findings concerning support among teachers for these policies and their effects…

This paper describes how Appreciative Inquiry was used to design an organization's evaluation system that would contribute to the staff's capacity to engage in evaluation and to think evaluatively. By building on participants' peak evaluation experiences, their values and wishes with regard to evaluation, and what is commonly accepted as…

Since the announcement in 1999 of a plan to tie teachers' salary increases to student achievement by Denver Public Schools, there has been a flood of nationwide policy activity around teacher compensation. This paper examines pay plans in Denver, Toledo, Minneapolis, and New York City, offering a snapshot of the changing landscape of teacher…

To assess teachers' grading and other evaluation practices and policies in Ohio, a 79-item questionnaire was administered to 258 elementary and secondary school teachers, and 137 other teachers were interviewed by college students taking an educational assessment class. The typical teacher assigned term grades of "A" or "B" to…

The procedures used by the Ohio News Photographers Association in selecting the 1979 Ohio "News Photographer of the Year" are described in this paper, and questions are raised about their adequacy. The paper tells how the judges analyzed the photograph portfolios on which the award was based, relates the judges' standards for evaluation,…

A study was conducted to describe Ohio secondary vocational education teachers' use of student assessment information in making instructional decisions. The target population for the study was all teachers who taught in secondary vocational education programs in Ohio public schools. A questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 393 secondary…

This study examined processes and techniques teachers used to ensure that their assessments were valid and reliable, noting the extent to which they engaged in these processes. A sample of 625 elementary and secondary teachers received mailed copies of the Ohio Teacher Assessment Practices Survey, which asked about steps that they followed and the…

During May of 1985, an external audit team was engaged by the Lorain (Ohio) City Schools to assess implementation of the seven correlates of an effective school. The correlates, developed by the Ohio State Department of Education, included: (1) a sense of mission; (2) strong building leadership; (3) high expectations for all students and staff;…

A developmental education evaluation model designed to be used at a multi-unit urban community college is described. The purpose of the design was to determine the cost effectiveness/worth of programs in order to initiate self-improvement. A needs assessment was conducted by interviewing and taping the responses of students, faculty, staff, and…

High school level instructional physical education programs in the state of Ohio are examined to determine the quality of their organizational structure and curricula offerings. Data collected from a 74.3 percent questionnaire response from 70 Ohio school systems describes the functional arrangement of the school programs based on the sex of the…

This study explored how the governance leadership of Ohios urban school districts views and deals with major governance issues related to student achievement. Five sets of issues were chosen as the focus of the research: (1) the recruitment, selection, retention, and evaluation of Ohio urban superintendents of schools and school district…

This article examines how novice teachers in Japan and in the United States, specifically in the state of Ohio, are assessed, evaluated, and supported as they enter the teaching profession. Comparison of practices and tools which characterize the two countries' approaches toward assessment and mentoring reveals that important differences exist in…

In response to a nationwide concern for quality education and academic preparedness, the Ohio State Board of Education created in 1983 the Early English Composition Assessment Program (EECAP) for improving the writing competency of exiting high school students. Faculty from more than 15 two- and four-year institutions and many more high schools…