Spurred by "Race to the Top," efforts to improve teacher evaluation systems have provided states with an opportunity to get teacher evaluation right. Despite the fact that a core reform area of "Race to the Top" was the use of teacher evaluation to provide on-going and meaningful feedback for instructional decision making, we…

Across the South, many states and school districts provide basic training for evaluators. But this basic training does not assure that evaluators will be prepared to provide teachers with classroom observations that are rigorous, reliable and personally relevant. High-quality evaluator training leads to improved instructional practice, both…

This research examines how public school principals in seven U.S. states perceive the proficiency exam they must take and pass in order to evaluate their teachers. The test is centered on the states' primary teaching evaluation system, which is based on Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching. An online survey was developed and 832 out of…

In recent years, an increasing number of research projects have been dedicated to competency assessment not only in school and vocational education, but also in higher education (Blömeke, Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Kuhn, & Fege, 2013). Compared to competency assessment in schools, competency assessment in higher education still is…

During the past few years, more than 30 states have enacted legislation to change the way teachers are evaluated. The new laws require the annual evaluation of teachers; typically, multiple evaluations during the school year are required for new teachers. They also require the use of multiple measures to determine a teacher's effectiveness and tie…

Evaluation is a continuous process interwoven into the entire students teaching experience. Preplanning the evaluation process is therefore very important. Without continuous planned evaluation from the co-operating teacher, the value of student teaching is greatly reduced. One of the main purposes of the student teaching experience is to allow…

This document, noting that teacher evaluation has now become a terror for teachers due to legislation such as the Stull Act, reviews the major assessment alternatives for teacher competence appraisal. The author discusses the use and merits of ratings, observations, and pupil test performance and finds them all to have fatal defects. He then…

Considers why instructor evaluations typically do not significantly impact instruction and describes how Commonwealth Edison, a large nuclear utility, adopted core competencies that were incorporated into all phases of instructional development: initial training for trainers, continuing training, and as the basis for an instructional evaluation…

Many factors make it difficult to identify a teacher formally as incompetent and to act on that identification once it is made. These factors include time constraints, bureaucratic requirements, and reluctance to face emotional stress. Once a poor teacher is identified, efforts are rarely made to help the teacher improve. Unsatisfactory…

This article highlights the state of the art in assessing the competency of elementary and secondary teachers in America. It includes an analysis of the historical perspective of teacher evaluation, the dilemma currently plaguing teacher evaluators, and future direction for research in teacher evaluation. The primary focus is on the two models…

Acknowledges that the content and structure of competency examinations is open to debate. Reviews professional examinations in other fields of expertise such as accounting, law, and medicine, in an effort to establish the value of such examinations in the teaching profession. (DR)

Performance evaluation involves at least 50 percent self-evaluation. Therefore, the success of an evaluation plan, if it is honestly aimed at performance improvement, depends more on self-involvement and self-evaluation than on any other factor. This book describes in detail methods of self-evaluation in the setting of performance objectives, the…

The University of Utah has piloted a course in instructional competency within the PharmD program. The ICARE (Instrument for a Comprehensive and Relevant Education) system is presented to students in two weekly meetings of one hour each over a 10-week quarter. The aim is to upgrade the quality of instruction in pharmacy. (Author/LBH)

The convergent and discriminant validity of common measures of three faculty competence attributes (teaching, research, and service) were investigated using multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrix analysis. Three different measures for each component were collected on 57 college professors. Results distinguished the three hypothesized components, but…

In Tennessee, varied data-gathering devices have been employed in an attempt to determine whether an educator is qualified for a given level on the state's career ladder program and, thereby, should attain the meaningful financial benefits linked to that status. In its first year of operation, the Tennessee program employed several domains of…