The Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) was first implemented during the 2013-14 school term. This study examined principals' dispositions at the end of this school term. Findings revealed several major concerns. The most prominent were (a) not having sufficient time to implement the program properly, (b) basing a teacher's performance heavily…

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…

Many layers of education governance press upon U.S. schools, so we separated state actors into those internal to and those external to the system. In the process, we unpacked the traditional state-local dichotomy. Using interview data (n = 45) from six case-study states, we analyzed local leaders', state-internal actors', and state-external…

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…

Over the past decade, Ohio has made important education policy advances, with a focus on student learning and achievement, standards, and accountability. Ohio is serious about its commitment to quality schools and honors this commitment by providing Local Education Agencies (LEAs) a research-based, transparent, fair teacher evaluation system…

This study employed a Likert-type survey, "Praxis/Pathwise" written observations, as well as guided and open-ended reflections to assess the perceptions of preparedness for the first year of teaching for special education student teaching candidates. Cooperating teachers completed the survey and "Praxis/Pathwise" observations.…