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From Teacher Quality to Effectiveness: Developing a Systemic Approach

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Is your evaluation system an exercise in compliance, or a source of management insights to improve recruiting, compensation, and professional development?

DMC’s fall 2010 Leadership Development Meeting will chart a process demonstrating how districts can pursue systemic management approaches to connect cutting edge evaluation systems to broader teacher effectiveness efforts. Participants will discuss best practices of both what to do and how to do it, using DMC tools and techniques and case study discussions.

 

Participants will address such topics as:
  • Current best practices for managing teacher evaluation data, an area where the national dialogue is still nascent
  • An organizing framework for managing processes and assigning responsibility for using teacher evaluation data to improve recruiting and align professional development
  • Data and communications protocols designed to facilitate the sharing of insights around teacher effectiveness within the district

The pursuit of improved teaching and learning has shifted in response to research findings and outcomes data: the pursuit of “highly qualified teachers” has transitioned to a pursuit of “teacher effectiveness.”

“Our challenge is to make sure every child in America is learning from an effective teacher—no matter what it takes. So today, I ask you to join President Obama and me in a new commitment to results that recognizes and rewards success in the classroom and is rooted in our common obligation to children.”

-Secretary Arne Duncan in a speech to the NEA

Race to the Top and the ESEA Blueprint ask states and school districts to establish definitions of teacher effectiveness “that are based in significant part on student growth and also include other measures.” Most teacher characteristics and qualifications have been shown to have little predictive effect on student achievement outcomes. The new emphasis of reform, and the focus of DMC’s Leadership Development Meeting, is on tying objective and subjective measures of effectiveness together to create more robust evaluation systems.