Despite evidence that many schools and districts have considerable discretion when hiring teachers and the existence of an extensive literature on teacher quality, little is known about how best to hire teachers. This is, in part, because predicting teacher quality using readily-observable teacher characteristics has proven difficult and there is…

Several studies have described the characteristics and employment situations of teaching artists in the United States. This study adds to that literature by describing the characteristics of teaching artists working in K-12 school environments, the nature of the classroom roles of such teaching artists, the professional development and supervision…

Gender and age bias is well-documented in academia with many studies demonstrating bias in students' evaluations of instructors. Failure of an instructor to meet gender or age-based expectations can translate to lower scores or negative comments on evaluations. While there is some evidence of bias in students' evaluations of online instructors,…

Recent changes in the policy environment have led states and districts in the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northeast & Islands Region to increase the rigor of their teacher evaluation systems by including more frequent observations or student test score data. States and districts nationwide began reforming their evaluation systems as…

This study examined the relationship between teachers' perceptions of school professional climate and their satisfaction with the process for evaluating their performance. It used the responses of a nationally representative sample of teachers to examine whether teachers' satisfaction with the evaluation process was associated with two measures of…

The 2017-18 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) is a nationally representative sample survey of public and private K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. State representative data are also available for public schools, principals, and teachers. NTPS collects data on core topics including…

Mathematicians have, historically, not been overly successful in their approach to teaching and much research has looked in to why this is so. Teaching mathematics is based on a solid understanding of the subject; however, instructors also need to be able to efficiently communicate the subject to their students. The purpose of this study was to…

A variety of factors have converged in the last decade to focus attention on the need for more rigorous designs of professional development (PD). Teacher development is increasingly viewed as one of the primary levers for improving teaching quality and ultimately student achievement. The authors present data from the Teacher Knowledge Assessment…

Across three phases, we investigated college students' perceptions of poor college teaching to develop a typology of poor teaching behaviors. In Phase 1, students generated a list of qualities representative of poor teaching. In Phase 2, another group of students assigned behavioral correspondents to these qualities, resulting in a list of 15 poor…

Classroom size, curriculum, and student attendance are all important factors that affect student outcomes, but these factors cannot compare to the classroom teacher's influence on student academic performance. Unfortunately, highly qualified teachers are not equally effective in different school settings. Findings associated with highly effective…

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) launched the Effective Teachers Initiative (ETI) in 2010 with the goal of increasing teacher effectiveness to improve student achievement. As part of this initiative, HISD implemented the Teacher Appraisal and Development System (TADS) in the 2011-2012 school year to provide teachers, principals, and…

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…

Whole-school or whole-class programs designed to promote positive behavior can enhance the likelihood that effective teaching and learning occur for all students. This practice guide is intended to help elementary education educators, as well as school and district administrators and parents, implement and support effective prevention-focused…

Policymakers and researchers increasingly recommend aligning educator evaluations and professional development to improve instruction and student learning. However, few empirical studies have examined the relationship between new educator evaluation systems and the professional development in which teachers engage following their evaluation. This…

This brief describes findings from a study of teachers who were rated less than proficient on one or more standards on a large urban district's newly developed educator evaluation system. Evaluators prescribed professional development activities, such as courses, workshops, coaching, and mentoring, and professional practice activities, such as the…