EVALUATING TEACHER PERFORMANCE IN THE UNITED STATES
EVALUATING TEACHER PERFORMANCE IN THE UNITED STATES

Summary/Abstract: Teaching is a complex task. It requires academic content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and skills, organizational skills, understanding of human development, and interpersonal skills to engage with students, colleagues, and, in the United States, increasingly diverse families. Given its complexity, its evaluation likely needs to be multifaceted. This article first briefly presents the policy context for teacher evaluation in the United States. It then examines policies under which students’ scores from standardized tests have been the essential source of data to evaluate teacher performance and describes how these evaluation systems influence teachers’ classroom practice. Finally, it briefly considers evaluation systems that may better reflect, inform, and support the complex task of teaching.

• Details
• Contents