The Consortium on Chicago School Research, with funding from the Joyce Foundation, is in the process of conducting a formative and summative evaluation of the Excellence in Teaching Pilot. This pilot focuses on improving the process of teacher evaluation in Chicago Public Schools. The new teacher evaluation system provides a continuum of teacher practice using the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching, as well as structured conferences between principals and teachers.
This report summarizes findings from the first year of the evaluation. The focus of year one of the study was to examine technical properties of the Framework, to learn about the implementation of the evaluation process and to describe perceptions of the principals and teachers engaged in the evaluation pilot. We rely upon a variety of methods to answer these questions including statistical analysis of principal and external observer ratings of classroom practice, classroom observations, and interviews with teachers and principals.
This report offers an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of the evaluation system and includes recommendations for improvements in training and implementation for the second year of the pilot.
In the second year of the study, we will be looking at validity of the Framework (i.e., how Framework ratings relate to value-added measures) and focusing on how the evaluation system relates to school change, as well as continuing to explore reliability and implementation issues.
A working paper is a work in progress intended to contribute to current conversations in research, policy, and practice in a timely manner. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are preliminary thoughts solely of the author(s) and shared with permission of the author(s). These preliminary findings, interpretations, and conclusions may change upon further interrogation and collaboration with UChicago Consortium colleagues and other stakeholders in our work.
