10 Steps for Integrating Teacher Effectiveness Systems and the Common Core

To strengthen state implementation of Common Core State Standards and meaningful teacher evaluations, the Aspen Institute and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released a set of recommendations for forging coherence across these efforts at CCSSO’s Implementing the Common Core Standards (ICCS) meeting of 22 states in New Orleans. “Teaching to the Core: Integrating Implementation of Common Core and Teacher Effectiveness Policies,” authored by the Aspen Institute’s Ross Wiener, suggests ten actions for state leaders.

“States are actively seeking ways to provide greater support to teachers and principals on both Common Core implementation and teacher evaluation so educators have the tools, resources, and time they need to effectively change their practice for the benefit of their students,” said CCSSO Executive Director Chris Minnich. “This Aspen Institute and CCSSO paper will help states by describing the linkages between implementation of Common Core and teacher effectiveness policies.”

Common Core and teacher effectiveness policies each are ambitious reforms on their own; together, they have transformational potential to significantly improve student outcomes and equity for all students. Creating a unified improvement agenda from these two initiatives to improve classroom practice demands intensive collaboration across teams and offices in the state education agency (SEA), sophisticated change management, and a focus on continuous improvement. Because these next several years are pivotal for re-orienting the culture of public education toward higher expectations for students and adults, Teaching to the Core offers practical suggestions to state leaders on how to ensure that teachers are using strategies that engage students in learning at high levels.

“Breaking down organizational silos is essential,” said Ross Wiener. “Common Core and teacher evaluation must work together as two parts of a whole. This is system-level work that shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of individual schools or teachers.”

Here are the Organizational Recommendations from the report:

1. Integrate planning and operations of Common Core and teacher effectiveness teams within the SEA.
2. Quickly acquire and develop the internal exper­tise needed to ensure that the Common Core is implemented with integrity and fidelity.
3. Ensure that professional development activities reflect Common Core expectations.
4. Create and support professional networks of school district leaders, principals and teachers to accelerate professional learning and deepen understanding of the Common Core and teacher evaluations.
5. Enable and encourage prioritization of Common Core instructional shifts in teacher evaluations.
6. Create a single, coordinated communications plan for college and career readiness that high­lights the value of the Common Core and the linkages with teacher effectiveness policies.

Here are the Recommendations for Practice from the report:

1. Require that definitions of high quality teaching practice used in teacher evaluations be aligned with the Common Core.
2. Insist that assessments used in the evaluation of teachers measure the Common Core.
3. As a complement to teacher evaluations, de­velop principal evaluation criteria that highlight the importance of implementing the Common Core with fidelity.
4. Support innovations in daily schedules that pro­vide time for teachers to collaborate on Common Core-related activities during the school day.

State leaders are advancing a substantively rich and complex reform agenda on an ambitious schedule, and the capacity of the entire field is challenged to meet the new demands. As separate initiatives, capacity will be overwhelmed and impact undermined, but by building coherence across Common Core and teacher effectiveness policies, SEAs can assist local educators in making fundamental improvement to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. “Teaching to the Core” and its ten recommendations will be a critical resource to state leaders to further their individual and collective efforts to integrate Common Core and teacher evaluation initiatives,” stated Minnich.

For more information, please visit: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/teaching-core-integrating-implementation-common-core-teacher-effectiveness-policies