Can you quantify the effectiveness of a good teacher? How much of that can be determined from student test scores? And how can teachers of untested subjects like the arts, physical education, and social studies be fairly evaluated? These are some of the questions raised in the newest edition of Policy Priorities, ASCD's quarterly policy newsletter, which examines U.S. efforts to transform its teacher evaluation systems.
The new issue describes how major initiatives like the Race to the Top competition, the No Child Left Behind state waiver requirements, and the Common Core State Standards have propelled state efforts to rapidly overhaul their evaluation systems and link teacher ratings to student outcome data. Policy Priorities looks at obstacles that states and districts have faced in implementing these new systems, including the shortcomings of value-added analysis; their efforts to incorporate multiple measures—such as classroom observations, samples of student work, teacher lesson plans, peer review, and student feedback—into evaluation systems; and examples of how some states and districts are developing ways to determine both student achievement and teacher performance in untested subjects.
You can also hear ASCD's interview with Lauren Sartain, coauthor of a report on teacher evaluations in the Chicago Public Schools system. Sartain shares her research findings on successful and unsuccessful
