Featured Article

Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness

Thomas J. Kane, Eric S. Taylor, John H. Tyler and Amy L. Wooten, Education Next, Summer 2011

In a new study, teachers’ scores on classroom observations reliably predicted their students' achievement gains.

The Times’ value-added methodology

LA Times, May 7, 2011

This paper describes the method which Richard Buddin, a researcher hired by the Times, used to calculate teacher effectiveness at raising test scores.

Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness

By Thomas J. Kane, Eric S. Taylor, John H. Tyler and Amy L. Wooten, Summer 2011

“The Widget Effect,” a widely read 2009 report from The New Teacher Project, surveyed the teacher evaluation systems in 14 large American school districts and concluded that status quo systems provide little information on how performance differs from teacher to teacher. The memorable statistic from that report: 98 percent of teachers were evaluated as “satisfactory.” Based on such findings, many have characterized classroom observation as a hopelessly flawed approach to assessing teacher effectiveness.

Building Teacher Evaluation Systems: Learning from Leading Efforts

By the Aspen Institute Education & Society Program, March, 2011

School systems across the country are working hard to fix broken teacher evaluation systems. This work offers the promise of regular, meaningful assessment of teacher performance. While this represents a significant advance, it is one part of a bigger picture: a teacher perfor¬mance management system that links accountability, support, ongoing feedback, compen¬sation, and career advancement. As school systems develop better evaluations, they will be best served if they approach this work with the other components of performance manage¬ment in mind.

Measuring Teachers’ Contributions to Student Learning Growth for Nontested Grades and Subjects

By Laura Goe, Ph.D., ETC and Lynn Holdheide, Vanderbilt University, 2011

The growing need for more information about measuring teachers’ contributions to student learning growth, particularly in nontested subjects and grades, is the impetus for this Research & Policy Brief. Although the research base in this area is disappointingly limited, the brief includes considerations and suggestions based on current models and experiences from the field. Although the brief is intended for use by states in developing statewide systems and providing guidance to districts, it also may be helpful to districts charged with designing and implementing evaluation models that fit within state and federal guidelines.

Teacher Evaluation Reform in Massachusetts: Recommendations from Greater Boston Teachers

By The Teach Plus Boston Teaching Policy Fellows 2009-2011 cohort, Teach Plus, Winter 2011

Written by teachers, this report calls for reform of the teacher evaluation system in Massachusetts.

Teachers’ Views on Measuring Effectiveness: Principles for Implementation of State and District Reforms

By Christina Porter, a Teach Plus Boston Teaching Policy Fellow, and Jim Larson, a Teach Plus Indianapolis Teaching Policy Fellow, Teach Plus (commissioned by the Aspen Institute and New Leaders for New Schools), January 2011

Moved by policy agendas taking on teacher evaluation reform, this report gathers teacher input in order to advise states’ development and implementation of new teacher effectiveness measures. It reports four recommendations for policy makers on moving from design to implementation to improve teachers’ effectiveness:

1. We believe that improving teacher evaluation is a key lever to improving student achievement.
2. We believe student growth data is an essential part of teacher evaluation.
3. School and district leaders must be held to the same high standards for promoting teacher growth as teachers are for promoting student growth.
4. Teachers need information on why their effectiveness matters to their students and how it will be measured.

Learning about Teaching: Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, December 2010

This project’s goal is to build fair and reliable teacher evaluation systems to help teachers and administrators improve student learning. Through classroom video, student achievement data, and student reflection, analysis from the project reveals four interesting findings:

1. A teacher’s past success in raising student achievement on state tests is one of the strongest predictors of her or his ability to do so again (p4).
2. These teachers also tend to help students understand math concepts or demonstrate reading comprehension through writing (p4).
3. On average, students perceive effective teaching when they experience it (p5).
4. Teacher feedback need not be limited to test scores alone; instead, these different sources of data can provide targeted feedback to teachers who are eager to improve (p5).

More than Measurement: The TAP System’s Lessons Learned for Designing Better Teacher Evaluation Systems

By Craig D. Jerald and Kristan Van Hook, National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, January 2011

This report analyses compiled evaluation practices to reveal successful practices and pitfalls: “TAP uses a comprehensive approach to teacher evaluation which considers multiple measures of performance including student achievement gains in addition to teachers’ instructional practices. Recent analyses have shown that TAP’s evaluation system produces much more valid performance ratings than do traditional teacher evaluations. TAP’s observational measure of classroom instruction represents a true distribution of teacher performance even before ‘value-added’ student learning gains are calculated” (1).

Reinventing educator evaluation: Connecting professional practice with student learning

By Kathleen Skinner, Massachusetts Teachers Association, January 3, 2011

Massachusetts’ largest teachers’ union has proposed that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education dramatically change the way teachers and administrators are evaluated. The report calls for a series of changes in the state evaluation framework that would then be incorporated into evaluation systems negotiated at the local level. Specifically, this MTA plan addresses this problem through a framework that evaluates both practice and practitioners using student learning and outcomes as one means to validate judgments.

A User's Guide to Peer Assistance and Review (PAR)

Project on the Next Generation of Teachers,

Peer Assistance and Review (PAR), a program that began as a labor-management initiative in Toledo over 25 years ago, relies on expert teachers to help both new and struggling teachers. It also ensures that teachers who should leave do leave. This mentoring and evaluation program offers another methodology for teachers to improve their practice.

Evaluating Teachers: The Important Role of Value-Added

By Steven Glazerman, Susanna Loeb, Dan Goldhaber, Douglas Staiger, Stephen Raudenbush, Grover Whitehurst, November 17, 2010

This paper highlights and clarifies four aspects of value-added teacher evaluation. It considers: value-added information and its appropriate application, the consequences for teachers and students of classifying teachers as effective or ineffective, the reliability of value-added measures of teacher performance against the standards for evaluations in other fields, and the reliability of evaluation systems that include value-added and those that do not when considering teacher personnel decisions.

Measuring Teacher and Leader Performance: Cross-Sector Lessons for Excellent Evaluations

By Julie Kowal and Emily Ayscue Hassel , 2010

This report summarizes six critical steps gleaned from diverse industries and research shown to be instrumental in designing a high performance measurement system: determining purpose, aligning job objectives to organizational mission, designing sound performance measures, setting performance standards, designing a performance measurement process, and using results to take action.

Teacher Effectiveness Task Force: Los Angeles United School District Final Report

By Teacher Effectiveness Task Force, April, 2010

General recommendations: redesigned evaluation process, differentiated compensation and career ladders (restructured tenure process), teaching support, legislative action.

Teachers’ Views on Measuring Effectiveness: Principles for Implementation of State and District Reforms

Teach Plus, 2010

Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellows were invited to write a brief for an audience of state-level policymakers on the topic of teacher evaluation. These current classroom teachers weighed in on the kinds of changes they would like to see in teacher evaluation systems.

Fixing Tenure: A proposal for assuring teacher effectiveness and due process

By Joan Baratz-Snoweden, June, 2009

Recommendations: Rigorous Professional standards, multidimensional evaluation system, collaboration between teachers and administrators, use of evidence of student learning, teacher's learning environment, and professional judgement in revoking tenure.

Best Practices for Teacher Effectiveness

By the National Council on Teacher Quality, November, 2009

Summarizes national barriers to achieving teachers' best preformance in the key areas of hiring and transfer, evaluation and tenure, professional time, and compensation.

Teacher Quality: Education Policy White Paper

By Suzanne Wilson(ed), November, 2009

In response to calls for extreme centralized bureaucratization or complete deregulation of teacher requirements, this analysis uses empirical evidence to organize and draw conclusions about the teacher characteristics assumed to reflect teacher quality.

Approaches to Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: A Research Synthesis

By Laura Goe; Courtney Bell; Olivia Little, 2008

This research synthesis examines the various methods and instruments by which teacher effectiveness is currently measured along with related policy recommendations.

The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness

Daniel Weisberg, Susan Sexton, Jennifer Mulhern, and David Keeling, The New Teacher Project, 2009

This seminal report from The New Teacher Project details the problems with most districts’ teacher evaluation systems: they treat all teachers as interchangeable “widgets” and rate 99% of teachers as satisfactory. Read the executive summary here:

Rush to Judgment: Teacher Evaluation in Public Education

Thomas Toch and Robert Rothman, Education Sector, 2008

Interested in teacher evaluation reform? Read this review of various teacher evaluation system innovations across the nation:

Supporting Effective Teaching Through Teacher Evaluation: A study of teacher evaluation in five charter schools

Heather Peske and Morgaen Donaldson, Center for American Progress, 2010

This research study examines evaluation practices at five charter schools where teacher evaluations are a tool for improving practice.

Fixing Tenure: A proposal for assuring teacher effectiveness and due process

By Joan Baratz-Snoweden, June, 2009

Recommendations: Rigorous Professional standards, multidimensional evaluation system, collaboration between teachers and administrators, use of evidence of student learning, teacher's learning environment, and professional judgement in revoking tenure.

Teacher Evaluation 2.0

By The New Teacher Project, July, 2009

This report proposes six design standards that any rigorous and fair teacher evaluation system should meet.

Closing the Talent Gap: Attracting and retaining top one-third graduates to careers in teaching

Byron Auguste, Paul Kihn, and Matt Miller, McKinsey & Company, 2010

In 2007, McKinsey published a research study that analyzed international education systems and concluded that “the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.” This new report examines teacher training, hiring, and retention policies in the US compared with other countries whose public education systems are outperforming ours.

Opportunity at the Top: How America’s Teachers could Close the Gaps, Raise the Bar, and Keep Our Nation Great

Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue, Public Impact, 2010

This report encourages policymakers to pay more attention to the excellent teachers that we already have in our public schools across the country by implementing a comprehensive set of reforms aimed at supporting and retaining top teachers.

How Effective Are Los Angeles Elementary Teachers and Schools?

Richard Buddin, on behalf of the Los Angeles Times, 2010

Read the technical explanation behind researcher Richard Buddin’s analysis of LA teachers that the LA Times used for its “Grading the Teachers” series.

The Value of Value-Added Data

Craig Gerald, The Education Trust, 2009

This report describes how value-added data can be useful – if calculated properly.

Secretary Duncan on Supporting Teachers, Improving Teacher Evaluation, and Providing a Well-Rounded Education

Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, www.ed.gov, January 13, 2011

Secretary Duncan discusses Evaluation reform in his video responses to Facebook questions to the Department of Education.

Secretary Duncan on Teacher Evaluation and Rewarding Excellence

Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, www.ed.gov, November 26, 2010

On November 26, Secretary Duncan answered questions asked by Facebook users about teacher evaluation and student achievement, and rewarding excellence to the Department of Education.

Paul Toner, President of Massachusetts Teacher Association, on YouTube: Insights and details about the proposal to dramatically change the way teachers and administrators are evaluated

Paul Toner, MTA President, December 21, 2010

MTA President Paul Toner, describes the work of Massachusetts Department of Secondary Education’s Educator Evaluation Task Force and their union’s report, Reinventing Educator Evaluation: Connecting Professional Practice with Student Learning.

Head of the Class

Doug Lemov, founder of the charter-school network Uncommon Schools, www.nytimes.com, May 2, 2010

In these 5 video clips from actual classrooms around the country, Doug Lemov, founder of the charter-school network Uncommon Schools, analyzes techniques that effective teachers use to get students to pay attention and follow instructions.

Jonah Rockoff and Douglas Staiger: Using Teacher Evaluation to Improve School Performance

May 6, 2010

Jonah Rockoff, the Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, and Douglas Staiger, the John French Professor in Economics at Dartmouth College, discuss research used to identify the effectiveness of teachers in achieving student outcomes by using a value-added approach, and the use of these measures for teacher evaluation and screening, in their presentations at the Social Enterprise Program's first annual Nonprofit Leadership Forum, Measuring and Creating Excellence in Schools.

More than Measurement: Lessons from TAP Teacher Evaluation

January 2011

The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) holds a panel discussion on the release of More than Measurement: The TAP System's Lessons Learned for Designing Better Teacher Evaluation Systems.