There is no systemic evidence that all the best teachers are leaving. In fact the opposite appears to be true. More research and more years of data, are needed, but early results seem promising that evaluation is playing a positive role in keeping the best educators. Numbers have already been Read more
Often, it seems in schools that reform after reform is layered on with little thought to alignment or coherence. The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders is responding to that problem with a new special issues brief titled, A Framework for Coherence: College and Career Readiness Standards, Multi-Tiered Systems of Read more
Evaluation studies of educator evaluation systems can provide feedback on implementation, support continuous improvement, and increase understanding of evaluation systems’ impact on teaching and learning. Although crucial for strengthening evaluation systems, these studies can be challenging to design and can be costly. The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders offers Read more
Studies have shown that new teacher evaluation systems are being implemented at record rates, but questions remain about how best to implement those systems. In collaboration with the Northeast Educator Effectiveness Research Alliance and the New Hampshire Department of Education, REL Northeast and Islands examined the implementation of new district Read more
Four new reports from the Regional Education Laboratories (RELs) West, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic examine new multiple-measure teacher and leader evaluations across the nation. These reports are helping to build the literature base on the connections between educator effectiveness and evaluation. Principal and teacher perceptions of implementation of multiple measure teacher Read more
A new report on teacher evaluation from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching by Taylor White evaluates many of the new, more complex, (and hopefully more fair) teacher evaluation systems being rolled out in various school systems. State and local policymakers are starting to replace the often-cursory teacher Read more
In today’s contentious education debates, Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) offer a compelling middle ground that provides rigor and concrete data yet in a way that accommodates student needs. The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) has several new resources available for education leaders to use in order to Read more
Teachers need ongoing, targeted supports to be effective. That’s why district and state leaders across the country are changing how they evaluate and support teachers. Over the past three years, 16 states have changed their teacher evaluation policies, with another 28 poised to do so in the next few years. Read more
A new study shows that, despite the increased use of value-added data and other forms of teacher evaluation such as student or teacher surveys, first-hand principal observation of teachers remains the most trusted and used means by which decisions are made about teacher improvement. In other words, data are available, Read more
The Center for American Progress and the Council of Chief State School Officers are out with a new report looking at next-generation accountability concepts that states have implemented in lieu of zero congressional action on No Child Left Behind. Generally, the accountability reforms fall into 5 categories across the states: Read more
The Regional Education Laboratories offer a number of webinars that are of interest to education reformers. Below, you will find a list of recently recorded webinars as well an upcoming event of interest. Effective School Leaders This webinar explores the role of school leaders in fostering teacher effectiveness and discusses Read more
There has been much talk in recent years about new incentive-based pay scales for teachers, but often the talk lacks the details to turn the talk into reality. But Baltimore City Public Schools (MD) has created a new pay ladder, and Education Week has published an interesting infographic with the Read more
Chad Aldeman and a Bellwether Education team have collected and synthesized data from 17 states and the District of Columbia that tracked and reported information on their teacher evaluation efforts as of July 2014. Data analysis revealed five major conclusions: Districts are starting to differentiate between poor, fair, and great Read more
What do we know about using alternative student growth measures to evaluate teacher performance? The following three updates from The Institute of Education Sciences provide research-based answers to that question. States increasingly are interested in incorporating measures of student achievement growth in teacher evaluations. But the typical measure of student Read more
In his edweek.org blog, Marc Tucker argues that success in improving teacher quality should be measured by our country’s ability to transform teaching from a blue-collar occupation to a high-status profession. Tucker was encouraged to write this particular blog post by a new report, “Genuine Progress, Greater Challenges: A Decade Read more
In the ongoing dispute concerning teacher evaluation, most of the furor has concerned value-added teacher evaluations—those based on student test scores. The many problems with these, such as teachers being evaluated based on entire schools’ test scores or on test scores of students they have never taught, have been identified. Read more