Teacher Evaluation Systems: Taking Stock of Their Impacts and Challenges

Session Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Increased efforts to hold teachers accountable for their performance via statistical estimates of their impact on student achievement and redesigned observation and evaluation systems have been among the most important education policy shifts of the last decade. Despite the controversy surrounding these systems and the fact that researchers and practitioners are only beginning to understand the changes—positive and negative—these systems are creating, we see continued expansion not only of the data-gathering and evaluation systems themselves but of the use of those systems to promote accountability in other domains, such as teacher preparation. The goal of this session is take stock of what we know about the impacts and challenges of data-intensive accountability systems in some key educational areas. Researchers and policymakers will discuss how these systems are affecting teachers, leaders, and schools; identify what is known and unknown in these areas; highlight what we can and cannot learn from teacher evaluation systems; and make recommendations for states and districts moving forward with such systems.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Peter A. Youngs, University of Virginia

Participants

• Dan Goldhaber, University of Washington

• Ellen B. Goldring, Vanderbilt University

• Heather C. Hill, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Venessa Ann Keesler, Michigan Department of Education

• John H. Tyler, Brown University