The 74 Million – Matt Barnum
“The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act and the waning of the Obama administration brings to a close federal efforts to improve teacher evaluation — a practice once widely derided for its infrequent and pro forma observations, inflated ratings, and lack of consequences. Today most states combine different measures, including classroom observations and student test data, to produce a rating that describes effectiveness. But problems with the system persist. Research by Matt Kraft of Brown University and Allison Gilmour of Vanderbilt University confirm other evidence that in most of the country new teacher evaluation systems still rate the vast majority of teachers effective — even though uniformly high ratings in the past were part of the impetus for creating new systems. Based on this study, the American Enterprise Institute’s Rick Hess declared “all that time, money, and passion” dedicated to teacher evaluation “haven’t delivered much.” The Shanker Institute’s Matt Di Carlo also pointed out that evaluation systems can’t be judged primarily on how many low-performing teachers they identify.”(more)