No consensus on which skills should be included in teacher evaluations
At least 30 states are launching new systems to evaluate teachers using more rigorous criteria about what makes a good teacher, but so far there is little consensus on what that criteria should be.
Teacher evaluations have become highly controversial as states introduce increasingly different models.
Can the quality of a teacher be measured by looking at just a few key skills such as setting academic goals and running an effective class discussion? Or should teachers be evaluated based on a broader range of abilities, including lesson planning and knowledge of content?
In Los Angeles, teachers will soon be evaluated by a list of 61 criteria during classroom observations conducted by school administrators. Louisiana, by contrast, requires principals to look at just five skills in the observation portion of the state’s new teacher evaluations. In most classrooms in Tennessee, principals use a checklist that includes 19 skills during observations that are part of a new, more intensive evaluation system launched last year. In each place, a teacher’s