Teacher Ratings Get New Look, Pushed by a Rich Watcher
Lindsey Cozat, a technology teacher at Croft Community School in Charlotte, N.C., set up a classroom recording device.
By SAM DILLON
Published: December 3, 2010
PRINCETON, N.J. — In most American schools, teachers are evaluated by principals or other administrators who drop in for occasional classroom visits and fill out forms to rate their performance.
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Video Eye Aimed at Teachers in 7 School Systems (December 4, 2010)
Travis Dove for The New York Times
The aim is to capture what happens in the classroom of a fifth-grade teacher, Damien Kingsberry, and to evaluate him.
The result? More than 9 out of 10 teachers get top marks, according to a prominent study last year by the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group focusing on improving teacher quality.
Now Bill Gates, who in recent years has turned his attention and considerable fortune to improving American education, is investing $335 million through his foundation to overhaul the personnel departments of several big school