ASCD's policy newsletter, Policy Priorities, reflects the purpose of this quarterly policy publication, which is to provide background and context for critical, timely education policy issues.
Administrators, teachers, families, policymakers, journalists, and others read Policy Priorities to better inform the decisions they make and the work they do.
Policy Priorities is published four times each year. Copies are mailed to all ASCD Premium members, and all other members have online access.
Current Print Issue
Quantifying Teacher Effectiveness
Traditional teacher observations have been criticized for being infrequent and indiscriminate, failing to identify even one percent of teachers in some districts as ineffective. These concerns prompted the U.S. Department of Education to include revamping teacher evaluation as a priority in its Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind waiver initiatives
Evaluation systems often attempt to offset the focus on test score data by incorporating other measures of teacher effectiveness, including observations, peer review, and other teacher materials. In teacher evaluation, as with most facets of education, one size does not fit all. It will take a concerted effort to ensure that teacher evaluation serves the ultimate goal of educating the whole child.
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