What information addresses teachers' greatest concerns and actually has value to improve their impact on student learning? Thomas Guskey and Laura Link share new research that points to five characteristics for effective instructional feedback.

Through Project I4 (which aims to lift academic discourse in STEM classes), principals and other school leaders who observe faculty use tools to identify, through evidence and clear criteria, what teachers are doing well and less well. The project's tools, including a post-observation Effective Conversation Guide, address aspects of equity (such…

When classroom observations are grounded in curiosity, they're more likely to give teachers the feedback they need--and want, write Sean Conner and Jennifer Froehle. Thoughtful questioning (over telling and directing) prompts teachers to construct their own understanding of strengths, needs, and next steps.

The logic behind "continuous improvement" sounds simple--but it takes a skillful leader to make the process pay off. While the logic behind the popular "continuous improvement" process seems simple, the authors' study of schools using approaches based on continuous improvement revealed that skilled leadership is as important as…

Improving the teacher workforce is now high on the education policy agenda, and most policymakers draw on research to inform their positions about teacher quality. Many policymakers cite the "fact" that, in general, teachers don't improve their effectiveness after their first five years in the classroom. However, recent research shows…

In the last few years, all but a few U.S. states have rushed to enact tougher teacher evaluation systems. Spurred by the incentives offered by two federal education initiatives--Race to the Top and the ESEA Flexibility Program--these states have designed teacher evaluation systems designed to "remove ineffective tenured and untenured…

How are teachers experiencing the more rigorous teacher evaluation systems that many states have mandated in recent years? Donaldson, who has studied teacher evaluation reform over the past eight years, shares insights from a study of 14 Connecticut districts that have implemented the state's 2012 teacher evaluation reforms. In surveys and…

Teacher evaluation systems can have high stakes for individual teachers, and it's important to ask how new evaluation models--including value-added measures--serve teachers as they strive to improve their practice. The authors interviewed teachers at a high-performing New York City school about their reactions to their value-added scores and…

School leaders need to be able to give and receive feedback--to give it skillfully to teachers, and to receive it skillfully from, well, everyone. Most educators agree that feedback can be necessary and helpful--yet the unending cascade of new directives governing feedback often feel like a waste of time. In this article, the authors offer…

Today's teachers and administrators are caught in a squeeze of conflicting demands. And evaluation guru Charlotte Danielson fears that teacher evaluation, as it's often implemented today, is making things worse. In schools where teacher evaluation has become simply a matter of numbers, ratings, and rankings, it may be undermining the very…

Although they may not have to confront the physical dangers fire fighters, and pilots face every day, teachers, principals, and administrators are responsible for many children and to many adults, our authors note (Tomlinson, Danielson, DuFour, Collins, Anderson). What teachers do or don't do affects the well-being of many and they have to make…

In 2013, a team of experts funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wrapped up a three year, $45 million project to identify Measures of Effective Teaching (MET)--an effort to determine whether it's possible to put numbers on something as complex as teaching. After reviewing 20,000 classroom videos, crunching data from thousands of student…

Principals can easily observe when a class is engaged in learning. Engaged students are learning because the content or activity feels "relevant" and "interesting," and they're achieving "success" in whatever they're doing. These three factors of engagement don't happen by chance. It happens when talented teachers…

Both speaking and listening are essential to effective communication. Unfortunately, meaningful two-way exchanges are largely absent from conversations about improving professional practice. Instead, many teachers say that they feel the observation and evaluation process is something that is done "to" them--at the post-observation…

Teachers and education leaders are aware that their words can have a significant effect on their students. Words can build them up and encourage them to work hard or tear them down and lead them to despair. The language used in teacher evaluations is no different, says teacher Brooke Eisenbach. In this article, she shares stories of colleagues…