Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching

Too often personnel decisions are made about teachers based on inadequate information. Performance assessments move beyond limited measures, creating a means for evaluating teacher effectiveness and can also serve as a lever for teacher improvement. This paper, presented at an event on October 19, 2010, and co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress, describes teacher assessment systems that are reliable, consistent and powerful and makes recommendations on effective ways to measure teacher effectiveness, to support continued development throughout teachers’ careers, and to inform personnel decisions about entry and continuation in the profession.