Teacher quality is the most important in-school factor influencing student learning and achievement. Research shows that students with high-performing teachers can progress three times as fast as students with low-performing teachers and each student deserves access to highly effective teachers in every subject. In turn, all teachers deserve a fair and accurate assessment of their skills, how they perform in the classroom, and how they can improve. Teacher effectiveness is dependent on accurate and fair evaluations, based on multiple measures, including—but not solely based around—their students' performance in the subjects they teach.
Teachers should be evaluated based on their performance in their own subject area using a range of criteria, including observations, peer reviews, parental or student input, and analysis of agreed-on student learning evidence. Join us throughout November as we take a look at models of effective evaluation that produce results that truly benefit students, schools, and educators.
The Whole Child Blog
Check out the Whole Child Blog throughout November for contributions from experts and practitioners in the field, whole child partners, and ASCD staff who will share free resources, provide examples of teacher evaluation models, and answer your questions. Be sure to leave your questions, ideas, and stories in the comments.
What Works in Teacher Evaluation
Visit the What Works section for a one-stop (free!) shop to explore issues that must be transformed for us to successfully educate the whole child. Our topic pages are a collection of resources on the topics we address each month. This month, we'll add resources to the Teacher Evaluation topic page. Tell us what has worked in your school and with your students. E-mail us and share resources, research, and examples.
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