Few things in the professional life of university faculty are more important than the tenure process. Achieving tenure provides the faculty member with the confidence that his or her position with the university will be secure for life. Politicians often criticize the tenure of teachers at all educational levels (Flaherty, 2017; Money, 2015).…

This report offers state leaders key areas for action to continue progress in implementing evaluation systems, even as federal policies on teacher evaluation relax state requirements. The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) offers its current best thinking for how state agencies can make the smartest use of funds, time and partners to refine…

The Texas Education Agency's (TEA) approved instrument for evaluating teachers, the Professional Development and Appraisal System (PDAS), was the primary instrument used by 86 percent of local education agencies (LEAs) in the state and has been in place since 1997. In acknowledging the vital roles teachers play in student achievement, and based on…

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation's major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that…

Value-added evaluations use student test scores to assess teacher effectiveness. How student achievement is judged can depend on which test is used to measure it. Thus it is reasonable to ask whether a teacher's value-added score depends on which test is used to calculate it. Would it change if a different test was used? Specifically, might a…

District Awards for Teacher Excellence (D.A.T.E.) is a state-funded program in Texas that provides grants to districts for the implementation of locally-designed performance pay plans. All districts in the state are eligible to receive grants, but participation is voluntary. As D.A.T.E. continues in its second year of operation with approximately…

Mentor teachers want their student teachers to be prepared with quality instruction so that students can achieve their maximum potential. The knowledge and experience that the student teachers gain with the mentor teachers in their classrooms is invaluable. As supervisors of student teachers, mentor teachers follow an evaluation form which has…

A recent report published by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) presents findings from the second-year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program, a statewide educator incentive program that operated in Texas. As part of this larger study, evaluators examined how participation in the TEEG…

Pay for performance is a popular public education reform, and millions of dollars are currently being targeted for pay for performance programs. These reforms are popular because economic and management theories suggest that well-designed incentive pay programs could improve teacher effectiveness. There is little evidence about the characteristics…

This teacher orientation manual has been developed as a comprehensive resource for teachers in Texas to facilitate a greater knowledge and understanding of the Texas Teacher Appraisal System (TTAS), designed as a developmental tool for the improvement of instruction, and the encouragement of professional growth. Through this system, teachers…

The Governor's Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) program was federally- and state-funded and provided three-year grants to schools to design and implement performance pay plans from the 2005-06 to 2007-08 school years. GEEG was implemented in 99 high poverty, high performing Texas public schools. This report builds on the previous GEEG evaluation…

Texas and North Carolina have exhibited strong levels of commitment to define and enforce standards of competent performance in the teaching profession. To make up for a prior lack of definition of what constitutes teacher effectiveness, both states have developed similar systems of teacher appraisal. In North Carolina, the Teacher Performance…

This report presents findings from the second-year evaluation of the Governor's Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) program. The GEEG program was federally- and state-funded and provided three-year grants to schools to design and implement performance pay plans from the 2005-06 to 2007-08 school years. GEEG was implemented in 99 high poverty, high…