The 2009 Race to the Top federal grant competition also called on states to develop systems that
evaluate teacher effectiveness by taking into account data on student growth.
The debate has become so heated that the State Assembly recently voted to impose a moratorium on using Common Core — aligned assessments to
evaluate teacher effectiveness for at least two years.
All of the hoopla
around evaluating teacher effectiveness, of course, is nothing but an attempt to avoid the politically incorrect issue of the instability of the poor / minority family structure.
Armed with the knowledge that quality teaching matters most for student learning, policymakers from state to state are racing to adopt new educational accountability measures that seek, among other things, to
evaluate teacher effectiveness with more rigorous, evidence - based instruments.
The decision to lengthen the school day and year, to
evaluate teacher effectiveness by examining student performance over time, and to reward teachers through referring to this performance, all first appeared in charter schools.
It's about using student - level survey data, or what students themselves have to say about the effectiveness of their teachers, to supplement (or perhaps trump) value - added and other test - based data
when evaluating teacher effectiveness.
Last year, Washington became the first state to lose its waiver from some of the strictest requirements of that law, known as the No Child Left Behind Act, because lawmakers here refused to require school districts to use student test scores as part
of evaluating teacher effectiveness.
Thomas J. Kane, Amy L. Wooten, Eric S. Taylor and John H. Tyler, «
Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: Can classroom observations identify practices that raise achievement?»
First, it should be conceded that Duncan has a great idea, rewarding states willing to undertake reforms such as launching high - quality charter schools (while closing bad ones) and using data to
evaluate teacher effectiveness.
Previous research has found that the scores produced by TES predict student achievement gains (see «
Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness,» research, Summer 2011).
The ed - school professoriate is divided in its support of value - added measures to
evaluate teacher effectiveness, for instance, and barely one - third want to see financial incentives for extraordinarily effective teachers.
«
Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: Can classroom observations identify practices that raise achievement?»
The paper highlights three specific problems with using value - added models to
evaluate teacher effectiveness, especially for such important decisions as teacher employment or compensation:
ASCD worked closely with Sen. Reed's staff, providing both background information on effective professional development and expert input on promoting and
evaluating teacher effectiveness, in crafting this bill.
(Calif.) Twenty - three states earned above the median score on a controversial matrix used annually by the National Council on Teacher Quality to
evaluate teacher effectiveness and preparation programs.
Value - added approaches hold great promise, but there is a need to develop better tests (and other thoughtful measures of student learning) and better measures of teacher practice to use along with test scores, so they are not the sole factor used to
evaluate teacher effectiveness.
Approaches to
Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: Research Synthesis (Chicago, Ill.: National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, 2008).
Even the Obama administration is perturbed that the bill is not stronger in
evaluating teacher effectiveness and school accountability, despite Harkin and Enzi's use of the department's blueprint as a framework for their bill.
Based on these findings, researchers recommend that school leaders use multiple measures, in addition to value - added, to
evaluate teachers effectiveness.
For example see T. Kane, E. Taylor, J. Tyler, and A. Wooten, «
Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness.»
The value - added assessments of teachers — which use improvements in student test scores to
evaluate teacher effectiveness — has grown in popularity across the country with support from the federal Department of Education, which has tied teacher evaluations to the Race to the Top state - grant program, reports the New York Times.
Policy makers have debated the best way to
evaluate teacher effectiveness, but have shown little interest in the training that is supposed to make them effective in the first place.
Lynn Holdheide is senior technical assistance consultant for the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders at AIR, specializing in
evaluating teacher effectiveness.
A report that seeks to clarify four areas of value - added measures that can be used to
evaluate teacher effectiveness.
A report studying several school districts, and their efforts to find alternative means to
evaluate teacher effectiveness.
RTTT also added support for two key policies that NCLB did not: using test score gains or losses to
evaluate teacher effectiveness (sold as «models of value added measurement»), and a commitment to «common standards» — which in this case meant adoption of the Common Core State Standards, since no other national standards existed for states to use.
Video recording of teachers is prompting a national debate about its use both as an instructional tool and for
evaluating teacher effectiveness.
School inspections, standardized testing of students, and
evaluating teacher effectiveness are consequences of market - like competition in many school reforms today.