The Case for Combining Teacher Evaluation and the Common Core

The following paper from Professor Thomas Kane appeared on The Brookings Institution website on September 11, 2014.

Given the nature of the job, school superintendents are master jugglers.  Even so, implementing new teacher evaluation systems has been a massive challenge for many of them, because of the demands such a system places on principals, the strain it exerts on labor relations, the inherent difficulty of creating a new vocabulary to describe effective teaching, etc.  I understand these challenges; I experienced many of them while directing the Measures of Effective Teaching Project for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Nevertheless, it would be a huge mistake to abandon those efforts as other challenges, such as the Common Core, loom.  Far from being a “dead end” (as asserted by Marc Tucker in Education Week recently), better teacher evaluation systems will be vital for any broad reform effort, such as implementing the Common Core.

After so many years of half-measures, we no longer recognize education reform for what it is—a massive adult behavior change exercise.  We can change textbooks, shrink class sizes, publish test scores, and build new buildings, but unless we change what adults do every day inside their classrooms, we cannot expect student outcomes to improve.  Yet, as anyone who has ever tried to lose five pounds or to be a better parent or spouse knows, adult behavior change is hard work.  And it simply does not happen without regular feedback.  When the current attempts to implement new teacher evaluations fall short—as they certainly will, given the long history of box-checking—we must improve them. 

Continue reading at www.brookings.edu.