Education Week

When I present my research on teacher evaluation reforms, I'm often asked whether, at the end of the day, these reforms were a good or bad thing. This is a fair question—and one that is especially important to grapple with given that state policymakers are currently deciding on whether to refine or reject these systems under ESSA. For all the nuanced research and mixed findings that concern teacher evaluation reforms and how teachers' unions have shaped these reforms on the ground, what is the end result of the considerable time, money, and effort we have invested?

Teacher evaluation emerged as a federal education reform priority under President Obama, advanced via the Race to the Top grant competition and state waivers to No Child Left Behind. By 2016, 44 states had passed legislation mandating major teacher evaluation reforms. While the new evaluation systems differ across states, nearly all systems share a common set of features: 1) the incorporation of multiple measures of teacher performance including test-based performance measures such as value-added measures or student growth percentiles; 2) the use of multiple performance rating categories; and 3) the use of evaluation ratings to inform high-stakes personnel decisions...