Every district leader is familiar with the difficulties of achieving consistent, accurate teacher evaluations. Educational reform measures like Race to the Top and ESSA pushed states and school districts to establish fair and accurate means of observing and measuring educator strengths and weakness – but can educators be sure these reforms are delivering on that promise?
Following initial implementation of new appraisal systems, summative scores climbed even when students’ learning outcomes did not improve accordingly. Even those who supported the reforms began to question the ability of evaluation systems to serve as a useful gauge of effectiveness.
A combination of factors – ranging from challenges with calibration among evaluators to lack of buy-in among educators and evaluators alike—led to scores that increasingly seemed to bear little relationship with the strengths and weaknesses that educators were really demonstrating. Some gave up on evaluation as a failed reform. But did they give up too quickly?
The Frontline Research & Learning Institute took a close look at evaluation data from the last five years to see whether the doubts surrounding educator evaluation reform are grounded. Download the report to see what the data uncovered.