History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
New teacher-evaluation systems face obstacles
- 12-14-2009
-
By Stephen Sawchuk/Education Week (subscription required)
Buoyed by the promise of federal funding and a burgeoning dialogue about teacher effectiveness, districts are beginning to overhaul their evaluation systems to provide more finely grained information on teacher performance. Among the places considering, piloting, or implementing teacher-evaluation systems based at least in part on a set of performance-based standards are Ann Arbor, Mich.; Chicago; the District of Columbia; Elgin and Rockford, Ill.; Prince George’s County, Md.; and select districts in states such as Idaho, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. But as those school districts scale up their work, they face a phalanx of obstacles, the greatest of which is probably the paucity of highly regarded models to draw on. What’s more, few districts have ever attempted to go beyond the typical function of evaluations—ensuring teachers meet a basic level of competence—to connect their systems to professional development, teacher promotion, and compensation. (more...)
Print this
