Washington, DC–Though many agree the key to improving public education is placing highly effective teachers in classrooms, the nation lacks a practical set of standards to determine that new teachers are ready to teach—but this doesn’t have to be the case, argues Linda Darling-Hammond in a new paper released today by the Center for American Progress.
"Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching,” describes the ways in which performance assessments can be used to influence teacher licensure and training as well as explaining progress in the field of teacher assessment development and potential policies to advance the field of teacher preparation
The report suggests some specific reforms, including the following:
- Teacher education programs can use performance data to flag program needs, guide improvements, and track progress.
- States, school districts, schools, and teacher development programs can use the assessments to provide an evidence-based methodology for making systematic decisions about recruitment, employment, professional development, and career development, as well as an outcome database that can be used by school districts to manage, analyze, and report data about teacher outcomes, and to track performance across the continuum of teachers’ careers.
- States and accreditors can use performance assessment outcome data as information for the accreditation process to leverage significant improvements in preparation programs.
For the full report, click here. To speak to the author about this study, contact Megan Smith at (202) 741-6346 or [email protected].
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