From our journals: Education reform and teacher evaluation systems

From our journals: Education reform and teacher evaluation systems
April 20, 2020
Meghan Krein

Review of “Enhancing Teacher Education, Development and Evaluation: Lessons learned from educational reform

By: Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Arizona State University

Published in: Education Review, April 8, 2020

Amrein-Beardsley says the overarching theme of this book is insanity, citing the definition as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Education policymakers have been propagating and regenerating education reform policies, she says, despite the evidence that 40 years of failed reforms have illustrated. The authors, Alyson Lavigne and Thomas Good conclude, “This is déjà vu — we have been here before, and inevitably we find our way back to policymakers, and sometimes educators, underestimating the complexity of teaching, supervising, and learning in modern schools.” Amrein-Beardsley says, “Applying even some of the recommendations Lavigne and Good advance in this final chapter would be particularly useful, especially in reflection of our policy past, in formulating better, more sound and more defensible educational policies, not to mention educational policies that might have a better chance to actually yield desired results.”

Policies and Practices of Promise in Teacher Evaluation: The introduction to the special issue

By: Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Arizona State University

Published in: Education Policy Analysis Archives, April 13, 2020 

This introduction by guest editor Amrein-Beardsley presents the background and policy context surrounding the ongoing changes in the United States’ teacher evaluation systems, such as the decreased use of value-added models for teacher accountability purposes. Amrein-Beardsley also summarizes and discusses the relevance of the two commentaries and seven research papers that were peer-reviewed and selected for this special issue. 

Putting Teacher Evaluation Systems on the Map: An overview of states’ teacher evaluation systems post–Every Student Succeeds Act

By: Kevin Close, Audrey Amrein-Beardsley and Clarin Collins, Arizona State University

Published in: Education Policy Analysis Archives, April 13, 2020 

The Every Students Succeeds Act loosened the federal policy grip over states’ teacher accountability systems. Close, Amrein-Beardsley and Collins present information from surveys sent to state department of education personnel about teacher evaluation systems post–ESSA. They found that states have decreased their use of growth or value-added models within their teacher evaluation systems — many states are offering alternatives for measuring the relationships between student achievement and teacher effectiveness besides test score growth. Evaluation plans contain more language supporting teacher feedback and are allowing districts to develop and implement more unique teacher evaluation systems.

About our journals

MLFTC sponsors three innovative, open-access journals on education scholarship. EPAA is a peer-reviewed, international, multilingual and multidisciplinary journal designed for researchers, practitioners, policymakers and development analysts concerned with education policies. Education Review publishes reviews of books on education topics and Acquired Wisdom essays by esteemed educational researchers, and CIE is a peer-reviewed journal led by MLFTC graduate students. 

Contact Stephanie McBride-Schreiner to learn more about our journals.