ConnCAN-Commissioned Report Looks at the Teacher Evaluation Implementation in 10 Sites, including New Haven, to Begin Charting Best Practice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — May 31, 2012

Contact:  Patrick Riccards, ConnCAN

Tel:  203-772-4017 x15

Email: patrick.riccards@conncan.org

New Haven, Conn

NEW HAVEN (May 31, 2012) – As states and school systems across the nation work to implement processes for evaluating educator effectiveness, a new research report offers a detailed look at 10 teacher evaluation models, looking at how they tackled key evaluation components such as student achievement measures, classroom evaluation, and other non-academic measures.

Conducted by Public Impact, Measuring Teacher Effectiveness: A Look “Under the Hood” of Teacher Evaluation in 10 Sites examines teacher evaluation efforts in three states (Delaware, Rhode Island, and Tennessee), five large districts (Hillsborough County, FL; Houston, TX; New Haven, CT; Pittsburgh, PA; and Washington, DC), one charter management organization (Achievement First), and the Relay Graduate School of Education. ConnCAN and 50CAN jointly commissioned the report, with support of the H.A. Vance Foundation.

“There are few factors as important to student success than that of an effective educator,” ConnCAN CEO Patrick Riccards said. “To ensure that every child has that effective educator, we must implement comprehensive evaluation models. Measuring Teacher Effectiveness is an important tool in understanding what teacher evaluation leaders are doing and what components must be factored into a meaningful evaluation model.”

As part of this effort, Public Impact, ConnCAN, and 50CAN have provided a research brief, a cross-site analysis that looks across all 10 sites, 10 detailed profiles of the teacher evaluation systems in each of the featured sites, and a library of documents that are the building blocks of the 10 systems. All of these products can be found at: http://conncan.org/learn/research/teachers/measuring-teacher-effectiveness

The report pays particular attention to the design and implementation challenges that many states and districts face in putting an evaluation system into place. These challenges focused on five areas: 1) student achievement measures; 2) classroom observations; 3) other non-academic measures; 4) accuracy, validity, and reliability; and 5) reporting and using evaluation results.

Each site is working to continuously improve their evaluation systems with the belief that the challenges they encounter can be overcome. As Measuring Teacher Effectiveness reports, “None of these systems claims to have cracked the code for teacher evaluation. Nonetheless, we consistently heard that the perfect should not be the enemy of the good.”

“There is no magic bullet when it comes to effective educator evaluation,” Riccards said. “But there is also no need to reinvent the wheel. By taking a close look at many of our evaluation trailblazers, we can see the necessary components for evaluation, the challenges our states and districts face in doing it right, and the unanswered questions we must still pursue if we are to provide all students with exemplary teachers.”

The findings of Measuring Teacher Effectiveness are particularly important as Connecticut is in the midst of developing the state evaluation model that will be in line with the teacher evaluation framework unanimously adopted by the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) in January 2012 and approved by the State Board of Education in February of 2012. This fall, the state plans to begin the evaluation pilot established under S.B. 458.

“The analyses of New Haven Public Schools and Achievement First, in particular, provide policymakers, educators, and administrators with a solid understanding of the good work currently being done in Connecticut,” Riccards said. “These case studies, along with the other eight, serve as important tools in the completion of Connecticut’s educator evaluation system.”