On November 19, 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would invest $290 million to support effective teaching as a means to ensure all students receive the education they need to succeed in high school and beyond. The foundation made six-year grants to support four Intensive Partnership for Effective Teaching (IP) sites…

In many cases the only solution to dealing with unsuccessful teachers is to encourage them to go into some other profession. However, it is also the obligation of principals to make certain the beginning teachers get all the assistance that can be provided them to avoid the pitfalls and difficulties that the challenge of the classroom presents.…

Many factors make it difficult to identify a teacher formally as incompetent and to act on that identification once it is made. These factors include time constraints, bureaucratic requirements, and reluctance to face emotional stress. Once a poor teacher is identified, efforts are rarely made to help the teacher improve. Unsatisfactory…

Administrators' classroom observation of teachers makes most teachers angry or fearful. An insufficiently used alternative method of obtaining a valid analysis of a teacher's abilities is to get objective information from the students themselves. This can best be done by a third-party interviewer who is not in a position of authority over either…

A successful evaluation or improvement of teaching program ought to develop after a careful consideration of the attitudes and perceptions of those most directly affected--namely students and faculty members. An understanding and awareness of the forces which control their actions on the intellectual-social-cultural environment of the university…

Research on elementary teaching practices has provided a list of effective teacher behaviors. This list can be used as a menu from which administrators and teachers can select objectives that will serve the teachers as goals for improvement and the administrators as criteria for teacher evaluation. The behaviors listed in this paper have been…

Without objective measures of occupational competence, it is not possible to ascertain whether the prospective teacher possesses the broadly-based level of competence essential for effective teaching. Each occupation contains elements which distinguish the competent tradesman (the author identifies seven). Assurance is required that the level and…

The etymology of the term "clinical supervision" is discussed. How clinical supervision can be used with teachers as an active force toward reform and change is then examined. Through clinical supervision teachers can assist each other to gain control over their own professional lives and destinies. (RM)

The evaluation of teachers to see whether they meet state competency standards or should be considered for merit pay is usually limited to making sure they achieve a minimum level of performance and does not involve determining how their performance can be improved if they exhibit higher levels of competence. In Georgia's Fulton County, Mountain…

The Oakland County School District in Michigan is in its fourth year of sponsoring the Oakland Writing Project. Research concerning whether the activities are having a positive influence on instruction and whether students are writing better as a result of the project has been, for the most part, informal but important. Project participants have…

The accountable evaluation for improvement procedure permits the evaluation and improvement of teaching by professional constructive alternatives. The teacher and his class are taped via portable television cameras. The tape is reviewed by the teacher, a subject or grade matter colleague of his choice, and the principal at a time convenient to…

Two of the most important functions that take place in school districts are staff development and staff evaluation. The relationship between these two functions, however, is more than two separate entities with some common administrative activities. Although it is conceivable that one of these functions is driven or motivated by the other, a…

Responsible and effective administrative leadership requires confronting those members of the teaching staff who are a negative influence on the institution. Importantly, the absence of expressed appreciation for good work can have a devastating impact on a principal's image if he or she suddenly begins to confront poor performances. Actually, the…

The future of instructional evaluation will probably involve responding to changes in the goals of both teaching and evaluating teachers. The inadequacies of student achievement tests as measures of educational effectiveness will lead to a shift of interest away from tests and toward the abilities of students to solve problems, use learning…

A carefully planned inservice education system should contain the following components: (1) Introduction: Committee Involvement. The system should be developed by a committee representative of the various levels of personnel who participate in the program and selected by prospective participants. (2) Philosophy. The inservice program should be…