Implementing Teacher Evaluation: Research and Practice Perspectives

Session Type: Invited Session

Abstract

This section will take stock of one recent effort to apply educational research techniques to practice: teacher evaluation. Teacher evaluation has been largely pro forma and much criticized. In the last decade, researchers have advocated applying such measurement tools as value-added analysis and more systematic approaches to classroom observation to the evaluation task. The uptake has been extensive. Yet, these new approaches may not deliver all the anticipated benefits. What initially seem like measurement problems may point to capacity and implementation issues. This symposium will overview those capacity and implementation issues and strategies to address them as understood by researchers and those helping states and school districts design and implement new evaluation systems.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• William A. Firestone, Rutgers University

Participants

• Melissa Fincher, Georgia Department of Education

• Timothy Daly, The New Teacher Project

• Brian Gong, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc.

• Courtney A. Bell, ETS

• Julie A. Marsh, University of Southern California

Discussant

• William A. Firestone, Rutgers University