Regional Educators Convene On Issue Of Teacher Effectiveness
June 25, 2010
Marlborough, MA: Defining and measuring teacher effectiveness was the focus of a June 25 regional meeting in Marlborough, MA that featured two national experts. Following introductory remarks by Virginia Barry, New Hampshire Commissioner of Education, Laura Goe, principal investigator for the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (NCCTQ), described research on the use of student measures in teacher evaluation. Charlotte Danielson, a Princeton, NJ-based researcher, presented on measuring the practice of teaching in teacher evaluation systems. One hundred educators from the six New England states representing SEAs, LEAs, state legislatures, professional associations, and institutes of higher education were in attendance.
The meeting was convened by the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI), the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, and the New England Comprehensive Center (NECC). It was part of series of events supporting the New England Collaborative on Educator Quality and Effectiveness (NECEQE). The NECEQE comprises state education leaders from the six New England states and has been meeting since the fall of 2009 to learn from and with experts and one another about the design of educator evaluation systems. Its work is supported by the NECC, REL-NEI, and NCCTQ.
Ensuring educator effectiveness is one of the six pillars of educational reform identified by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; numerous federal funding opportunities, such as Race to the Top, tie teacher effectiveness explicitly to student growth and require districts to implement educator evaluation systems based on student and educator performance measures.
Although education has long engaged philosophers, actionable research that education systems can use to measure and improve teacher effectiveness is thin. In her introduction, Commissioner Barry noted that research does suggest that individual teachers have a greater impact on student learning than other factors such as income or class size. She called on the full range of stakeholders to work collaboratively to strengthen the teaching profession.
Laura Goe, a former teacher in Southern U.S. rural and urban schools and principal investigator for the NCCTQ, described the tensions inherent in evaluating teacher effectiveness and detailed one particularly effective model, the Value-Added Model, or VAMs. This model has been in use in Tennessee for two decades, although at the district rather than state level. Educators and union representatives in New York and Rhode Island are developing statewide systems and other states are engaged in teacher evaluation at a range of levels. For Goe, the necessary caution mandated by the lack of research must be balanced by a willingness to test and refine models.
Confirming the importance of value-added measures, Charlotte Danielson described the elements of a system of teacher evaluation in terms of rigor and stakes. She outlined a framework for assessing teacher practice in distinct domains, such as classroom environment, planning, and instruction (educators in Delaware are currently using Danielson's framework in designing an evaluation system). Danielson suggested some uses of teacher evaluation in differentiating stages of a teaching career, noted challenges, and identified a range of levers states can use to promote teacher effectiveness.
Following the presentations, participants engaged in cross-state, role-alike discussion groups and in single state groups; representatives from each state consulted with Goe and Danielson in small groups.
“We realized it was important to engage a larger number of stakeholders in an interactive session of digging into the research, connecting research to practice, and learning how states are using the research or are underway with measures for teacher and leader performance,” explained Carol Keirstead, director of the New England Comprehensive Center and co-facilitator of the event with Kathy Dunne, NH liaison to the REL-NEI. Dunne noted that “The strength of this technical assistance effort was in the collaborative partnership among REL-NEI, NECC, and NCCTQ. It provided a focused integration of resources on a high-priority topic for our region.” REL-NEI director Jill Weber added that a related resource, based on a REL-NEI webinar with Douglas Harris of the University of Wisconsin that also examined VAMs for measuring teacher effectiveness, is available online.
New Hampshire's Commissioner Barry called the conference “one of the best,” both deeply informative and an opportunity for states to compare efforts and to share what states that have applied for Race to the Top have learned about measuring teacher effectiveness. Barry is poised to name the members of two new state education commissions in New Hampshire, one on teaching issues and a second on leadership, that will draw stakeholders from all aspects of education to study the issues and make recommendations.
“Incredibly timely” was how Eileen Lee, Director for Educator Policy for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, described the conference. She has already passed conference materials on to several colleagues in higher education. Lee was gratified to hear speakers confirm “the value of the higher education perspective and expertise [...] as states move through this important work,” she said, and welcomed further discussion on issues arising from basing teacher evaluations on student assessments that were not designed for that purpose. This is particularly relevant, she noted, in connection with the new Common Core standards and forthcoming assessments.
Sherry Gile, Director of Professional Programs for the Vermont NEA, also found having the time and opportunity to talk with stakeholders from around the region valuable. With the connection between teaching and student outcomes, she said, “teachers have to be at the table.” She urged continued discussion with the whole range of stakeholders, beginning with a conversation about the data that teachers currently collect about student learning.
“Being with peers was critical,” Gile said. “Vermont doesn't have the capacity to create a system from the beginning; we must rely on colleagues. We must find ways to share. We believe that teachers should learn from each other in professional learning communities-why shouldn't it be the same for adult learning in a really complicated area like this?”