The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) is leading and supporting the implementation of a Teacher and Principal Evaluation (TPE) system in all school districts in the state. This study examines the progress of four years of TPE implementation, 2013 to 2016. The study draws on nearly 60,000 survey responses from principals and teachers…

This guide was developed to provide guidance to states or districts wishing to monitor implementation of educator evaluation systems. It describes a three-step process: develop state guidelines for educator evaluation systems; develop data collection methods; and determine adherence criteria and review data against criteria. The process was…

The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was a multiyear effort to improve student outcomes--particularly high school graduation and college attendance among low-income minority students--by increasing student access to effective teaching. The RAND Corporation worked…

This publication provides an overview of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The following topics are covered : (1) Introductory Information, including a timelime and ESSA modifications to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB); (2) State Plan; 3) Statewide Accountability System, ; (4) Academic Assessments; (5) Standards; (6) School Improvement;…

Researchers recommend that policymakers use data from multiple sources when making decisions that have high-stakes consequences (Herman, Baker, & Linn, 2004; Linn, 2007; Stone & Lane, 2003). For this reason, a fair but rigorous teacher-effectiveness rating process relies on evidence collected from different sources (Goe, Bell, & Little, 2008;…

Policy makers and educators across the nation are incorporating new standards and assessments into evaluation systems, designed to impact teacher effectiveness and student achievement. New York is one of the states that have developed a teacher evaluation system, now fully implemented in all of its 697 public school districts. As the results from…

Thanks to increasingly meaningful teacher evaluations, far more is now known about the effectiveness of teachers in public school classrooms. What should states, districts, and schools do with that knowledge? In policy debates, much of the attention has focused on teachers at the "ineffective" end of the spectrum. With better teacher evaluation,…

The "Race to the Top" competitive grant program initiated a wave of teacher evaluation reform, which scholars and policymakers have long identified as critical to improving teacher quality and student performance. State boards of education (SBEs) and state education agencies (SEAs) took different approaches to these reforms, and as a…

Given the tremendous impact teachers have on learning--they are the single most important school-based determinant of student achievement--the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) believes that no education improvement strategy states and districts take on is likely to have a greater impact than one which seeks to maximize teacher and…

Federal education policy in recent years has encouraged state and local education agencies to embrace data use and analysis in decision-making, ranging from policy development and implementation to performance evaluation. The capacity of these agencies to make effective and methodologically sound use of collected data for these purposes remains an…

To create an effective performance evaluation system for special education teachers, a cooperative educational unit in New York State reviewed both performance criteria and operational procedures involved with data collection. Using effective teaching literature, the group developed 18 criteria and accompanying descriptors acceptable to teachers.…

Observation is important in evaluation, but artifact collection should also be used as a supplement to observation. This article includes a framework for analysis of content, design, and presentation of such material in teacher evaluation. (MD)

A Utah district's assessment committee created an innovative, yet conservative teacher-evaluation program using direct measures of teacher performance. Teachers can choose among various data sources: parent surveys, student surveys, student-achievement data, documentation of professional activity, and teacher tests. Datasets are preferred over…

Describes three-step process principals can use to collect and compile student test data from teachers on a regular basis: Asking for test data; deciding what to ask for; and supervising the data-reporting process. Asserts that data-collection process will benefit teachers' classroom practices and student achievement. (PKP)

A strategy used by many principals to gather classroom information and frame that interaction is the classroom "learning walk" or "walk-through." The walk-through can be defined as a brief, structured, nonevaluative classroom observation by the principal that is followed by a conversation between the principal and the teacher…