Teachers' Use of Evaluation for Instructional Improvement and School Supports for This Use

• In Event: Roundtable Session 36
  In Roundtable Session: Improving Educational Outcomes Through Human Resources and Teacher Evaluation

Abstract

As states and districts reinvent teacher evaluation systems, teachers’ utilization of information to improve instruction has become key to improving student learning outcomes. Drawing on two years of data from two rural school districts, we find that early-career teachers who were on annual contracts were more likely to use evaluation to improve their instruction than veteran teachers who were continuing contracts. The top one-fourth and bottom one-fourth teachers were significantly more likely to use performance information for improvement than teachers in the middle of the distribution. Moreover, among a variety of potentially effective school supports for teachers’ use evaluation for improvement (e.g., professional development, principal feedback, and collegial supports), the usefulness of principals’ feedback particularly mattered to early-career teachers.

Author

• Min Sun, University of Washington - Seattle