Teacher evaluation systems introduced by states and school systems in the past several years have focused attention on improving the performance of public school teachers, but they have been cost- and time-intensive, placing a significant burden on states' and districts' resources. In Tennessee, for example, trained evaluators conducted nearly…

An evaluation system that is designed to support and improve teacher practice--rather than simply to assess and manage teacher performance--would have as its foundation effective and reliable processes to observe classroom practice and give teachers useful feedback. Such an improvement-focused evaluation system should be aligned with and…

As NIET enters its 20th year, research continues to point to the effectiveness of NIET's support and the positive impact of investing in human capital. The Winter 2020 Research Summary captures both NIET's key long-term impact, shares promising results highlighting that the TAP System [The System for Teacher and Student Advancement] sustains…

The United States is in an era of high-stakes evaluation of educators (i.e., teachers and principals), the results of which are used to inform human capital decision making (i.e., recruitment, hiring, retention, and dismissal), which in turn impacts school capacity and student learning. The present article describes the School System Improvement…

Approximately 30 states are now adopting teacher evaluation policies that include student learning objectives (SLOs), which are classroom-specific student test growth targets set by teachers and approved (and scored) by principals. Today state and district leaders are trying to determine the appropriate level of guidance and oversight to provide…

Each year, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) publishes the "State Teacher Policy Yearbook," a comprehensive examination of the state laws, rules and regulations that govern the teaching profession, measured against a realistic set of reform goals. For five years running, the full "Yearbook" compendium…

This study describes how multiple-measure teacher evaluations were put into practice in a set of ten volunteering local education agencies (LEAs) in Arizona. After a key shift in state policy, five "pilot" LEAs implemented the new Arizona Department of Education teacher evaluation model in the 2012/13 school year, while five other…

This study explored the relationships among the components of the Arizona Department of Education's new teacher evaluation model, with a particular focus on the extent to which ratings from the state model's teacher observation instrument differentiated higher and lower performance. The study used teacher-level evaluation data collected by the…

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions held by teachers, principals (and other evaluators), and superintendents regarding current practices in teacher performance evaluation. A second purpose was to collect demographic data relating to current teacher evaluation practices. Two survey instruments were used to collect data. One…

This report summarizes a doctoral dissertation that investigated the status of teacher evaluation practices in Arizona as of October 1974. Data were gathered through questionnaires mailed to the principal or chief administrator of all 774 public schools in Arizona. Respondents were asked to indicate the purpose, criteria, and frequency of teacher…

This report makes recommendations to the Arizona Department of Education for a state evaluation of Career Ladder programs. To develop this evaluation plan, prior evaluation efforts related to Career Ladders in Arizona were studied, and Career Ladder directors and program administrators from school districts across Arizona were interviewed.…

Five states (Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Florida, and Arizona) are currently either administering or field-testing classroom observation systems for certification or employment decisions regarding beginning teachers. In Georgia, a beginning teacher has three years to demonstrate competence. Observations are completed by an external data…