Teacher Evaluation

Teacher Evaluation Research and Resources

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Why High Quality Teaching is Important

  • The Long-Term Impacts of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood (Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff, 2011)

    Summary | Full Article

    The authors question whether value-added (VA) data provides unbiased data of the teachers’ impact on positive student outcomes and whether or not VA teachers improve students’ long-term outcomes.

  • Teacher and Classroom Context Effects on Student Achievement: Implications for Teacher Evaluation (Wright, Horn, and Sanders, 1997)

    Summary | Full Article

    This article addresses the different factors that contribute to student learning while acknowledging the important role teachers play in student achievement. Through the use of Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, a longitudinal study was conducted to assess student achievement.

  • Measuring a Teacher's Value and Effectiveness in SREB States (Southern Regional Education Board, 2011)

    Summary | Full Article

    This SREB Policy Brief brings together key findings on the components of comprehensive teacher evaluation models from top researchers and policy groups. This brief was in response to state requests for assistance in crafting policy on teacher effectiveness and evaluation.

General Teacher Evaluation Articles

  • The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness (Weisberg, Sexton, Mulhern, Keeling, Schunk, Palcisco, and Morgan, 2009)

    Summary | Full Article

    This report examines the pervasive and longstanding failure to recognize and respond to variations in the effectiveness of teachers. The failure of evaluation systems to provide accurate and credible information about individual teachers’ instructional performance sustains and reinforces a phenomenon that we have come to call the Widget Effect. The Widget Effect describes the tendency of school districts to assume classroom effectiveness is the same from teacher to teacher.


  • Getting Teacher Assessment Right: What Policymakers Can Learn From Research (Hinchey, 2010)

    Summary | Full Article

    (Full article link above provides a copy of the research brief as well as a sound recording from NEPC Director Kevin Welner about the brief) The National Education Policy Center addresses teacher assessment in this policy brief, stating that teacher quality makes a big difference in student learning. A review of 275 articles and reports on the subject of teacher assessment found conclusively that placing excessive emphasis on test scores alone can undermine the goal of developing an excellent teaching force. Based on this research review, it is recommended that policymakers employ a full-spectrum assessment system that continually improves teaching but also enables the timely dismissal of teachers who cannot or will not improve.

  • Teacher Evaluation 2.0 (The New Teacher Project, 2010)

    Summary | Full Article

    The New Teacher Project addresses teacher evaluation systems and the effectiveness of these evaluations. Research shows that the best predictor of a teacher’s effectiveness is his or her past success in the classroom. This paper proposes six design standards that any teacher evaluation system must meet in order to be effective.

  • Evaluating Teachers and Principals: Developing Fair, Valid, and Reliable Systems (Center for Educator Effectiveness)

    Summary | Full Article

    The Center for Educator Effectiveness put this paper out to assess teacher effectiveness. The paper starts by defining teacher effectiveness and continues by explaining multiple indicators of effectiveness, how to develop a clear composite rating, how to clarify differentiated performance levels, building strong data analysis and reporting tools, and finally how to improve instructional and leadership practice through the evaluation of teacher effectiveness.

  • Approaches to Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: A Research Synthesis (Goe, Bell, and Little, 2008)

    Summary | Full Article

    This research synthesis examines the various ways in which effective teaching can be conceptualized and measured. By evaluating the research on teacher effectiveness and the different instruments used to measure it, this synthesis contributes to the discussion of appropriate rigor and relevance of measures for different purposes.

Using Value Added Growth Measures in Evaluation

  • Identifying Effective Classroom Practices Using Student Achievement Data (Kane, Taylor, Tyler, and Wooten, 2010)

    Summary | Full Article

    This study tests whether classroom observations- when done by trained professionals, external to the school, using an elaborated set of standards- can identify teaching practices most likely to raise achievement. This paper combines information from classroom-based observations and measures of teachers’ ability to improve student achievement as a step toward addressing these challenges.

  • Information and Employee Evaluation: Evidence From a Randomized Intervention in Public Schools (Rockoff, Staiger, Kane, and Taylor, 2010)

    Summary | Full Article

    The authors analyze and establish several facts consistent with a simple Bayesian learning model of employee evaluation in the presence of imperfect information. This paper examines how managers develop and use subjective evaluations, and how these processes are affected by the presence of objective performance data.

  • Analysis of Key Elements of SLO Practice in Leading States (Illinois State Board of Education, 2012)

    Full Article


  • Problems with the Use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers (Economic Policy Institute, 2010)

    Summary | Full Article

    This paper reviews evidence that leads one to conclude that, although standardized test scores of students are one piece of information for school leaders to use to make judgments about teacher effectiveness, such scores should be only a part of an overall comprehensive evaluation. A sound evaluation will involve a balancing of many factors that provide a more accurate view of what teachers in fact do in the classroom and how that contributes to student learning.

Evaluating Non-Tested Grades and Subjects

  • Measuring Teachers’ Contributions to Student Learning Growth for Nontested Grades and Subjects (Goe and Holdheide, 2011)

    Summary | Full Article


  • Approaches and Considerations for Incorporating Student Performance Results From Non-Tested Grades and Subjects Into Educator Effectiveness Determination (Marion and Buckley, 2011)

    Summary | Full Article

Subject Area Evaluation Articles

  • Special Education Value-Added performance Evaluation Systems: A State-Level Focus (Burdette, 2011)

    Summary | Full Article


  • Transforming High Schools: Performance Systems for Powerful Teaching (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2011)

    Summary | Full Article

State Teacher Evaluation Policies

  • State of the States: Trends and Early Lessons on Teacher Evaluation and Effectiveness Policies (National Council on Teacher Quality, 2011)

    Summary | Full Article

  • Teacher Evaluation: New Approaches for a New Decade (Zinth, 2010)

    Summary | Full Article

Sample of State Teacher Evaluation Models

District Teacher Evaluation Resources

Sample of Teacher Evaluation Frameworks

Sample of District Teacher Evaluation Sites

Aligning Professional Development to Teacher Evaluation

  • Workplaces That Support High-Performing Teaching and Learning: Insights From Generation Y Teachers (American Institutes for Research & American Federation of Teachers, 2011)

    Summary | Full Article

  • iObservation
    A web based platform that collects, manages and reports longitudinal data from classroom walkthroughs, teacher evaluations and teacher observations using evaluation frameworks from Danielson, Marzano or Reeves.

  • Tap™
    The System for Teacher and Student Advancement provides teachers with powerful opportunities for career advancement, ongoing professional development, a fair evaluation system and performance-based compensation.
  • The NIET Best Practices Portal
    A subscription based interactive web tool to that provides resources and training to support teacher professional development tied to evaluation.
  • Building Professional Development to Support New Student Assessment Systems (Stephanie Hirsh, Learning Forward)

    Summary | Full Article

Streaming Videos of Teaching Strategies

Additional Resources