A Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) white paper links national assessment reform and the need to advance teaching as a results-oriented profession. The paper raises cautions about the use of value-added models (VAMs) as “the preferred method” to estimate the effects of individual teachers on student achievement. Even highly accomplished Read more
At the International Summit on the Teaching Profession last week, Stanford University announced that it will collaborate with Pearson for delivery of the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA)-a nationally available, performance-based assessment for measuring the effectiveness of teacher candidates. The TPA was developed by a team of Stanford researchers led Read more
The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality is pleased to introduce three new research & policy resources to assist districts and states in designing and implementing teacher professional development activities and evaluation systems. They are: Measuring Teacher Contributions to Student Learning Growth for Nontested Grades and Subjects was developed to Read more
A new policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education calls for a practical set of standards and assessments to measure the quality of teacher performance. “Transforming High Schools: Performance Systems for Powerful Teaching” recommends providing teachers with the quality education and ongoing training needed to greatly improve student outcomes. Read more
As education budgets across the nation contract in response to the recent financial crisis, many school districts have been forced to lay off a sizeable number of teachers. This raises two important questions: what determines which teachers will be let go, and is the existing policy offer best for students? Read more
The New Teacher Project’s Teacher Evaluation 2.0, a blueprint for better teacher evaluation, has informed the work of a number of states who are in the process of overhauling their evaluation systems. Now, The New Teacher Project has released a useful tool to support the development of better teacher observation Read more