Building Teacher Evaluation Systems: Learning From Leading Efforts

Posted by on April 18, 2011

Considerations for evaluation systems

A new report from the Aspen Institute looks at the teacher evaluation systems of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and the Achievement First (AF) charter network as a means to help education leaders develop their own teacher evaluation and performance management systems. According to the report, their challenge is to simultaneously focus on the details of an evaluation system while keeping an eye on the bigger picture of performance management and how it will support district-wide improvement in instruction and student achievement. Rather than issue recommendations, the report offers five questions for districts to ask as they undertake the task: What level of specificity and conformity are they trying to create through teaching standards? How do they balance high-stakes accountability with ongoing support and feedback that are essential for improvement? How will teachers be engaged to build ownership of teacher evaluation and performance management? How will the system’s teaching and learning infrastructure need to evolve to support implementation of the teaching standards? And finally, how will the system need to function differently to implement a robust performance management system? For each question, the report analyzes the approaches of the DCPS and AF as a way to illuminate the various trade-offs that occur.

See the report: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/building-teacher-evaluation-systems-learning-leading-efforts