Evaluation

State law sets the parameters of teacher evaluations, generally determining the minimum frequency at which teachers are evaluated and in some cases setting the framework on which teachers can be evaluated. 27 states require annual evaluations for all teachers and 44 require annual evaluations for all probationary teachers. Most states also require some objective evidence of student learning or student achievement to be a part of the evaluation process, with only 9 states having no formal policy with this requirement. 18 states require student growth to be the preponderant criterion in the evaluation. For more information on state level evaluation policies, see the evaluation section of the state policy issues page.

The actual instruments used to evaluate teachers are usually decided at the local level, frequently in negotiation with the local union. Components of evaluations vary from district to district and state to state, but common components include student achievement or growth data at either or both a teacher and school level, classroom observations (can be announced or unannounced) by any combination of school administrators, colleagues or third party evaluators, contributions to the school community and student surveys.

Teacher Contract Database Our database collects evaluation handbooks used in each district and uses information in them to answer 25 questions about evaluation. The database explores the evaluation system in general, including what teachers are evaluated on, how often and who is involved in evaluations, what the rating categories are, and what kind of feedback teachers receive; the role of student achievement and how it is calculated; evaluation requirements for tenured and non-tenured teachers; and the consequences for receiving a negative evaluation.

What the research shows

The New Teacher Project's 2009 report The Widget Effect illustrates many of the problems with the current state of teacher evaluations, particularly that 99 percent of teachers receive satisfactory ratings, even in schools where students fail to meet basic academic standards, year after year (Weisberg et al, 2009).

Identifying Effective Classroom Practices using Student Achievement Data, by Kane, Taylor, Tyler and Wooten, finds a strong correlation between student test scores and qualitative teacher observations done by principals (when a strong evaluation tool is used) (2011). These results point to the promise of teacher evaluation systems that would use information from both classroom observations and student test scores to identify effective teachers. Further, such results offer information on the types of practices that are most effective at raising student achievement.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project was a three year study focused on identifying ways to measure and evaluate effective teaching. The project included 3,000 teachers in six school districts and involved dozens of organizations and researchers. Using random assignment of teachers to groups of students, the study concluded that effective teaching can be measured and that more effective teachers caused student to perform better on state tests and more cognitively challenging assessments (Cantrell and Kane, 2013).

More specifically, the MET Project found that evaluations that balance the weight of student test scores (33-50 percent), observations, and student surveys do a good job of predicting student achievement while also providing reliable scores from year to year. In addition to the conclusion that using multiple measures in a balance way is best for evaluations, the MET Project also found that adding a second observer (besides just the school administrator) increased the reliability of the observation score (Cantrell and Kane, 2013).

Works Cited

Cantrell, Steve, and Thomas J. Kane. "Ensuring fair and reliable measures of effective teaching: Culminating findings from the MET Project?s three-year study." Seattle, WA: Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation (2013).

Kane, Thomas J., Eric S. Taylor, John H. Tyler, and Amy L. Wooten. "Identifying effective classroom practices using student achievement data."Journal of Human Resources 46, no. 3 (2011): 587-613. (Working paper version)

Weisberg, Daniel, Susan Sexton, Jennifer Mulhern, David Keeling, Joan Schunck, Ann Palcisco, and Kelli Morgan. " The widget effect: Our national failure to acknowledge and act on differences in teacher effectiveness." New Teacher Project (2009).