In an op-ed piece that appeared in the August 28 issue of the New York Daily News, well-known education scholar and author (and self-identified union critic) Frederick M. Hess blasted the recent decision by the New York state appellate court that will allow New York City to release student achievement Read more
The Teachers of the Washington New Millennium Initiative, an institute part of the Center for Teaching Quality, released a report this week focusing on how to create a results-oriented teaching profession. The group’s recommendations are: 1. A two-tiered assessment system with improved national- and state-level standardized tests. Student assessments must Read more
Recently the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, changed their position on including student performance in teacher evaluations. In passing the new policy, the union hopes to take a leadership role in the national movement towards revamped teacher evaluation methods. However, the union also made it clear that Read more
On Friday the new IMPACT teacher evaluation results were announced by D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson. All told, 413 DCPS teachers and staff have been given separation notices, but not all of the firings were directly related to IMPACT. The controversial evaluation system identified 288 DCPS teachers and staff Read more
In her report Inside IMPACT, Reporter Susan Headden takes a close look at D.C.’s teacher evaluation system. IMPACT was developed by former Chancellor Michelle Rhee to address the gulf between the high rate of “satisfactory” teacher evaluations and student NAEP scores that were among the lowest in the nation. IMPACT Read more
Last month, the Tennessee State Board of Education adopted a state-recommended, state-wide teacher evaluation model currently being used in South Carolina. The Board also adopted three alternate models for districts to choose from, and the state will monitor each district closely in the coming year to make sure that teachers Read more
In a recent EducationNext report, researchers examine the Teacher Evaluation System (TES) of Cincinnati to test if it is as effective as has been touted and whether it could address the “Widget Effect” cited by The New Teacher Project (2009). Cincinnati’s TES uses classroom observations performed by trained evaluators external Read more
In its latest report, The New Teacher Project (TNTP) addresses eligible applicants of Round 3 of the Race to the Top (taking place this fall), and other states seeking to most effectively invest their time and resources in implementing revised teacher development and evaluation tools. Their investment suggestions fall into Read more
The U.S. Department of Education and Asia Society released a report last week entitled, “Improving Teacher Quality Around the World: The International Summit on the Teaching Profession,” addressing lessons shared during the two-day event held in New York City in March. The summit marked the first-ever convening of education ministers, Read more
As the reauthorization of ESEA draws nearer, Education Sector’s Policy Director Kevin Carey and Robert Manwaring, a fiscal and policy consultant, argue in a newly released report, Growth Models and Accountability: A Recipe for Remaking ESEA, that Congress should combine a measure of student growth with achievement into a single Read more
National Education Association officials announced that they would put a “policy statement” before the union’s governing body for approval that, among other changes, would open the door to the use of “valid, reliable, high-quality standardized tests,” in combination with multiple other measures, for evaluating teachers. The statement, passed by the Read more
Although much of the impetus for new approaches to teacher evaluation comes from policymakers at the state and national levels, the design of any particular teacher evaluation system falls to the roughly 16,000 school districts and 5,000 independent public charter schools in the country. A new report from the Brookings Read more
The prospect of designing and implementing teacher and leader evaluations and the data systems necessary to link teachers with the achievement of their students is a daunting task. States and districts are only now confronting technical and logistical hurdles to creating new evaluations, writes Stephen Sawchuck in Education Week. In Read more
Concerns over current and future emerging changes in the U.S. education enterprise have led one of the nation’s premier educational psychologists, Professor Edmund W. Gordon (photographed here) of Teachers College at Columbia University, to lead a two-year study group – the Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in K-12 Read more
A new report from the Aspen Institute looks at the teacher evaluation systems of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and the Achievement First (AF) charter network as a means to help education leaders develop their own teacher evaluation and performance management systems. According to the report, the challenge Read more
At Hope Street Group, educators work together to develop recommendations for policymakers that will be used to improve teacher evaluation systems. Hope Street has partnered with leaders at state Departments of Education across the country and connected them with teachers in their states to develop evaluation measures and determine feasible Read more