The Center for American Progress (CAP) has released a report that analyzes how states can use the results of their teacher evaluation systems in a meaningful way. In other words, “what kinds of strategies should they adopt to increase the amount of measured effectiveness in the teacher workforce over time?”
In October 2011, the National Council on Teacher Quality reported that 25 states have adopted policies that require annual evaluations of teachers, and 23 require evaluations to consider student achievement data (you can read our summary of this report here). This amounts to two-thirds of all states changing their teacher evaluation policies just in the past three years, a “stunning amount of policy activity in an area that had remained nearly stagnant for decades.”
However, rather than interpreting teacher evaluation as a way to provide teachers with meaningful feedback and professional development opportunities, in many districts and states poor evaluations have resulted in punitive actions, such as dismissal. In many cases, evaluation results are not being tied to professional development plans unless the results are bad. In this way, teachers who receive good results are not being given opportunities to improve their practice further.
So how can this be addressed? CAP has identified two strategies: movin’ it, which treats teacher effectiveness as fixed and uses this information for selective recruitment, retention, and deselection to attract and keep teachers with higher effectiveness and remove those with lower effectiveness. States who are making personnel decisions based on new evaluations results are “movin’ it.”
In contrast, “improvin’ it” treats effectiveness as a “mutable trait that can be improved with time.” When there is discussion about providing useful feedback to teachers or using evaluation results to tailor professional development for individual teachers, these are “improvin’ it” policies.
These policy choices do not present an either/or. “Smart” school systems would combine the policies to maximize increases in teacher effectiveness, and research shows that high-improving and high-performing schools do just this.
The report urges policymakers at all levels to “move beyond the false choice at the heart of this debate” and come to consensus on the fact that the PD system as it now stands in most districts is a waste of billions of dollars annually. Replace this system with proven models and support districts in implementing them. Encourage districts to anticipate potential hurdles in rolling out the PD system, and work with them to overcome barriers.
For this to happen, districts need to perform comprehensive audits of their current PD investments and determine whether or not these investments actually help teachers to improve, regardless of their current level of effectiveness. Additionally, states implementing new evaluation policies need to “take every step possible” to ensure that the feedback given to teachers is “as valuable as teachers have been promised.”
For information on Core Education’s professional development services, see http://www.coreeducationllc.com/PD.php
To read the full report, please visit http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/01/movin_it_improvin_it.html
