How Reforming Teacher Evaluation Can Improve Student Outcomes on a Large Scale

• In Event: 46.048 - Using Measures of Teaching Effectiveness to Improve Classroom Teaching and Student Outcomes: The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching After Three Years

Abstract

This paper will describe the theory of action informing the Intensive Partnership for Effective Teaching (IP), the distinctive role played by the Gates Foundation working with the seven IP sites, and the ways the initiative is related to larger trends in teacher evaluation.

The theory of action behind the initiative is that a valid measure of teacher effectiveness can be used to manage a site’s teaching staff effectively to promote student achievement. The teacher effectiveness measures are made up of direct measures of teaching that include classroom observations using locally adopted or developed rubrics, value-added estimates based on student growth, and other information, such as student and parent surveys of learning conditions or survey measures of teacher knowledge. The measures developed or adopted in each site are being used for key decisions throughout a teacher’s career, including placement, retention, compensation, and support. These decisions are expected to improve teacher effectiveness and provide more equity in the way teachers are distributed across schools, which, in turn, are expected to lead to better student achievement, graduation rates, and postsecondary preparation.

This initiative is distinctive from many other district-wide reforms because of the planning that occurred before implementation and the support provided afterwards. With the foundation’s support, the sites engaged strategic planning partners to help develop their proposals, and, after receiving the grants, they spent months working with stakeholders, including teachers, administrators, unions, and community members, to design their teacher evaluation systems and develop their implementation strategies. Once the initiatives began, the sites also contracted with partners to help with specific functions, including expanding teacher recruitment, teacher training and professional development, and computing value-added estimates of effectiveness. A portion of each site’s grant was invested in information technology infrastructure. The foundation is providing each site with an active program officer who meets with them regularly to chart their progress. In addition, the foundation has hired a contractor assemble annual data dashboards that are used to track progress. Each site works with its foundation program office to set annual goals in terms of the dashboard indicators, track their progress, and user the information for improvement planning.

The IP initiative shares many features with reforms related to Race to the Top. For example, all sites have adopted structured teacher observation systems, relying in part on principals as observers, and many of the sites are using a version of the Framework for Teaching rubric, which is widely used nationally. All sites have incorporated a measure of student growth, and although the specific models differ, they are similar to those in widespread use by states and districts. All have adopted an information technology infrastructure to support the new systems. And in each site, the evaluation measures are expected to guide district, school, and teacher choice of professional development opportunities, including online support, as well as coaching and workshops. The evaluation provides an opportunity to examine how these common features have been implemented in different settings and to assess their initial effects on student outcomes.

Authors

• Michael S. Garet, American Institutes for Research

• Brian Stecher, The RAND Corporation