When evaluating education programs to measure their impact on students, particularly underserved students, it’s important to use a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) lens. A new brief from Bellwether Education, titled “Approaches for Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Evaluation,” summarizes concrete strategies and examples to engage stakeholders, ensure quality data, and Read more
In recent years, state and local education leaders across the United States have revised their teacher evaluation policies and practices in an effort to enhance the quality of evaluation measures and improve instructional practices. These teacher evaluations are often based on multiple measures of performance, including classroom observations, indicators of Read more
District of Columbia Public Schools has been a source of some sensational headlines over the past decade, from an on-camera firing of a school principal to recent revelations of watered-down diplomas. But the school district arguably has done more to modernize public school teaching than any other in the nation. Read more
Matt Barnum, writing for Chalkbeat, has summarized the findings of a RAND report on the $575 million investment from the Gates Foundation into teacher evaluation reform. Excerpts of the article appear below: New research commissioned by the Gates Foundation finds scant evidence that changes [related to human capital reform for Read more
The Institute of Education Sciences has released the fourth and final evaluation report on the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants, which were awarded in 2010 to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The report, conducted by IES’ National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance Read more
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released its biannual 2017 State Teacher Policy Yearbook (Yearbook), which finds that the rapid progress made by states over the last decade to modernize their teacher policies has largely slowed. Since the last edition of the Yearbook in 2015, few states have Read more
For the last 18 months, the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education, in partnership with the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the Department, has been working with Mathematica Policy Research and SRI International to build the Rapid Cycle Evaluation Coach (the RCE Coach). The RCE Read more
The Behavioral Science and Policy Association recently published Reimagining Accountability in K–12 Education. This paper reviews the extensive behavioral science literature that shows outcome-based accountability, commonly used in education, is only one of multiple forms of accountability that should be considered for new accountability structures. Author Brian Gill recently commented Read more
The Regional Educational Laboratories Program has released a new video series that explains how schools, districts, states, and their research partners can use a cost-effective approach, known as “opportunistic experiments,” to test the effectiveness of programs. Under the right circumstances, this type of research study can generate evidence for informing Read more
A new study finds that the usefulness of teacher evaluation feedback and the credibility of the evaluator are important characteristics in how teachers perceive and respond to evaluations. The Regional Educational Laboratory Central study looked at teachers’ perceptions of feedback from evaluators and identified characteristics of feedback that may influence Read more
Many states and districts are adopting commercially available teacher observation instruments for the professional practice component of their evaluation systems. A report by Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Mid-Atlantic provides new evidence to help educators choose among five widely used “off-the shelf” teacher observation instruments and decide how much weight to Read more
A new study finds both strengths and limitations in the measures used for New Jersey’s new principal evaluation system. The study, released by the Institute of Education Sciences, was conducted by Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic and focused on the statewide principal evaluation system that was fully implemented by the state Read more
The Institute of Education Sciences has released a new guide that can help researchers and practitioners who are planning, implementing, and evaluating professional learning communities (PLCs). The guide, from Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic, compiles 49 valid, reliable, and tested measures of key performance indicators of teacher PLCs. The guide features Read more
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) released a new study recently on the validity of evaluation ratings using an instrument adapted from a well-known teacher observation tool, the Danielson Framework for Teaching. The findings of the study, by Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) West, support the use of a single summative Read more
Observations of teacher performance are a critical component of most teacher evaluation systems, and, if done well, they can help teachers better understand and improve their practice. Yet, as critical as observations are to ensuring quality instruction, not much is known about how districts are training and supporting their observers. Read more
A recent response to the Nation’s Report Card results by the Obama Administration calls for a reduction of redundant tests, in order to improve the nation’s scores in reading and mathematics. Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, believes that this action is “an unfortunate and tragically oversimplified response Read more