Standards-based Teacher Evaluation Research Articles

Teacher performance and student learning: linking evidence from two national assessment programmes

This paper investigates the validity of a national, standards-based teacher evaluation programme by examining the relationship between teachers’ evaluation results and their students’ learning progress. We used census achievement data that assessed the same cohort of students at the end of 8th and 10th grade. We applied multilevel modelling and calculated correlations between teachers’ value-added estimates and their results based on the evaluation system’s multiple measures of teaching quality, which include a portfolio of classroom teaching artefacts and a video-taped lesson, a peer interview, supervisor assessments and a self-assessment. Our study finds a medium-size positive relationship between value-added estimates in mathematics and teachers’ portfolio results, while relationships with the other instruments are weaker. Correlations are lower for Spanish, but showing a similar pattern across instruments. We also find significant yet weak relationships between value-added estimates and three of six emerging factors of teaching practice based on the evaluation’s portfolio data.

How to activate teachers through teacher evaluation?

There is a general doubt on whether teacher evaluation can contribute to teachers’ professional development. Recently, standards-based teacher evaluation has been introduced in many countries to improve teaching practice. This study wants to investigate which teacher evaluation procedural, leadership, and teacher characteristics can stimulate teachers’ feedback utility perceptions and professional learning activities in the context of teacher evaluation. Data were collected in 32 secondary schools from 298 teachers and 32 school leaders, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We put forward a research model which is investigated through path analysis. Results nurture optimism about teacher evaluation indicating that teacher evaluation can stimulate teachers to undertake professional learning activities when they perceive feedback as useful. The important role of the school leader (through both instructional and transformational leadership) is stressed. Teacher participation and teacher collaboration also have a positive influence on teacher evaluation and its outcomes.

A mandatory, high-stakes National Teacher Evaluation System: Perceptions and attributions of teachers who actively refuse to participate

This study examines why some public elementary school teachers openly refuse participation in a mandatory national, standards-based teacher evaluation program. We describe the perceptions these “rebel” teachers have of the evaluation system, studying their open resistance based on the meanings they construct, and elaborated an explanatory model for their behaviour. In-depth interviews with nine teachers were analyzed using Grounded Theory. Findings indicate that there are several factors related to teachers’ refusal, among them teachers’ perceived lack of legitimacy of the evaluation system, their negative emotions, including fear of results, and characteristics of the culture of the teaching profession in Chile.

Examining Teacher Evaluation Validity and Leadership Decision Making Within a Standards-Based Evaluation System

Purpose: The article reports on a study of school leader decision making that examined variation in the validity of teacher evaluation ratings in a school district that has implemented a standards-based teacher evaluation system. Research Methods: Applying mixed methods, the study used teacher evaluation ratings and value-added student achievement data to identify 23 school leaders with “more” and “less” valid results. These leaders were interviewed to learn about their attitudes on teacher evaluation, their decision-making strategies, and school contexts. Results from interviews with a subset of eight school leaders with 2 years of consistent validity scores ( n = 4 more valid and n = 4 less valid) were analyzed. Findings: Substantial variation was found in the relationship of evaluators' ratings of teachers and value-added measures of the average achievement of the teachers' students. The results did not yield a simple explanation for the differences in validity of evaluators' ratings. Instead, evaluators' decisions were found to be a complex and idiosyncratic function of motivation, skill, and context. Conclusion: The results suggested why overall validity of ratings was lower than expected and highlighted challenges in research on school leader decision making and cautions for using such decisions for high stakes purposes. Recommendations are provided for improving evaluation accuracy and validity, with considerations for performance evaluation policy and future research on school leader decision making and teacher evaluation.

Catching up with the Vaughn express: Six years of standards-based teacher evaluation and performance pay.

Traditional methods of paying and evaluating teachers in the United States are longstanding, but discussions about changing these systems to support teacher quality and student achievement goals are becoming more common. Efforts to make significant changes to these programs can be difficult and take many years to design, gain approval, and implement; thus, few examples of alternative teacher compensation and evaluation systems exist. Relieved from many of the restrictions and requirements associated with most traditional public school systems, charter schools often are better positioned to implement changes more quickly than a traditional school, yet their experiences can provide useful information for others who are engaging in similar activities. Thus, the experience of a large urban charter school that designed and implemented an innovative teacher compensation system and standards-based teacher evaluation system that has been in place for six years offers important lessons in designing, implementing, evaluating and refining these systems.

Examining the Relationship Between Teacher Evaluation and Student Assessment Results in Washoe County

In this article, we describe findings from an analysis of the relationship between scores on a standards-based teacher evaluation system modeled on the Framework for Teaching (Danielson, 1996) and student achievement measures in a large Western school district. We apply multilevel statistical modeling to study the relationship between the evaluation scores and state and district tests of reading, mathematics, and a composite measure of reading and mathematics. Using a value-added framework, the teacher evaluation scores were included at the 2nd level, or teacher level, of the model when other student and teacher-level characteristics were controlled. This study provided some initial evidence of a positive association between teacher performance, as measured by the evaluation system, and student achievement. The coefficients representing the effects of teacher performance on student achievement were positive and were statistically significant in 4 of 9 grade-test combinations studied.

Lessons Learned About Standards-Based TeacherEvaluation Systems

In this article, I draw several lessons learned about how to assess student, classroom, and teacher effects, with a specific focus on performance-based teacher evaluations. One lesson is that hierarchical linear modeling techniques are helpful in sorting out the magnitude of impacts at these three different levels of the education system. The other major lessons are reflected in the conclusion that research findings suggest that educators have learned how to design and operate performance-based teacher assessments that have sufficient reliability and validity to use for consequential decisions such as triggering pay increases.

Criterion-Related Validity Evidence for a Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation System

This article reports evidence of the criterion-related validity of a standards-based teacher evaluation system implemented by the Cincinnati Public Schools. The analyses described provide evidence for a moderate level of criterion-related validity of the teacher evaluation ratings. The results indicate that teachers who received the lowest ratings on the Teaching for Learning domain had students who performed lower on state and district tests than predicted based on prior year test scores. Students of teachers who received the highest ratings on this domain generally performed better than predicted. Correlations (Kendall’s tau) between composite scores (the sum of four domain scores) and student achievement ranged from 0.28 to 0.37, depending on subject tested, and were statistically significant at conventional levels.

Continuing Assessment of Teacher Reactions to a Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation System

Building on our evaluation of a field test (Milanowski & Heneman, 2001), the present study provides a description and evaluation of the first two years of district-wide implementation of a standards-based teacher evaluation system in the Cincinnati public schools. We describe the new system and changes that were made to it as a result of the pilot study. We then focus on two substantive research issues—the inter-rater agreement of classroom observations and teacher reactions to the new system. We found that carefully selected and trained peer evaluators provided ratings that showed moderate to high agreement with ratings by administrators. Teachers' specific reactions to the new system on several dimensions were found to be mostly neutral. Teachers' overall reactions to the new system, however, were less favorable. Based on these results and other research we make several suggestions for how to effectively design and implement a standards-based teacher evaluation system.

Analysis of Feedback, Enabling Conditions and Fairness Perceptions of Teachers in Three School Districts with New Standards-Based Evaluation Systems

This article reports findings from qualitative case studies of three different school districts that have experience with similar teacher evaluation systems. The study focuses in depth on teachers' responses to feedback, enabling conditions, and perceptions of fairness of systems that have extended beyond a pilot stage. A conceptual model is used to organize the data related these variables using domains of teaching practice, explicit standards, and detailed performance rubrics. The results are discussed in view of contextual variables framing implementation of the teacher evaluation systems in these three districts. Issues related to use of a single set of evaluation criteria, principals as evaluators, how to balance evaluation burdens with making reliable and valid decisions, human resource alignment and training in teacher evaluation systems are discussed. Sets of researchable propositions are formulated that address these issues and the findings are discussed in view of developing and implementing standards-based teacher evaluation systems.

Assessment of Teacher Reactions to a Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation System: A Pilot Study*

This article reports on teachers' reactions to a pilot implementation of a new standards-based teacher evaluation system in a medium-sized Midwestern school district. The system, based on the Framework for Teaching (Danielson, 1996), was intended to serve as the foundation for a new knowledge and skill pay plan for teachers. Teacher reactions were measured using both interview and survey methods. Teachers' overall favorableness toward the system, as measured by the survey, was correlated with acceptance of the teaching standards, perception of the evaluation process as fair and the evaluator as capable and objective, and perception that the evaluation system had a positive impact on their teaching. In interviews, teachers perceived both positive and negative aspects of the system, and for many these more or less balanced each other. While most teachers accepted the evaluation standards and the need for an evaluation system, many also perceived that the system added too much to teachers' workloads and did not provide enough feedback. Based on these results several changes were made in the evaluation system prior to full implementation. The results are discussed with reference to previous research and the Personnel Evaluation Standards.