What Has Happened to Teacher Evaluations? We Need Your Help
By Anthony Cody.
Under President Obama, the federal Department of Education offered several billion dollars in Race to the Top money and waivers from NCLB to states and school districts across the country in exchange for redesigning teacher evaluation processes. The feds required that a significant portion of teacher evaluations be based on student test scores, which was interpreted to mean anything from a low of 20% to a high of 50% of the weight of an evaluation. Some states used complex formulas to calculate “value added,” while others adopted frameworks from Charlotte Danielson or Robert Marzano.
These evaluations were designed to strengthen teaching – to provide teachers with feedback, to identify those in need of support, or those who should be dismissed. But it is unclear what the real impact has been. It is unclear what the impact of these policies (link) has been. Furthermore, there seems to be very little data being collected regarding the impact of these processes on working teachers – and the administrators who must evaluate them. We hear that more teachers are leaving the profession, and that morale What Has Happened to Teacher Evaluations? We Need Your Help - Living in Dialogue: