Linking Teacher Evaluation and Student Learning

In Linking Teacher Evaluation and Student Learning, researchers Pamela D. Tucker and James H. Stronge show that including measures of student achievement in teacher evaluations can help schools focus their efforts to meet higher standards. You'll see how four school systems have built such measures into their evaluation programs in these distinct ways:

• Documenting how desired learning outcomes translated into actual student learning.
• Tracking progress on key content standards.
• Setting annual quantifiable goals for students' academic progress.
• Analyzing changes in students' achievement test scores.

The authors explore the strengths of each approach, offer insights from teachers and administrators, and describe practical ways to incorporate similar measures of student learning into your own evaluation program. Detailed appendixes provide hands-on tools and resources to help you adapt these approaches to your school's particular needs.

For any school that is working to meet higher standards, linking teacher evaluation to measures of student learning is a powerful way to refocus professional development and improve student achievement.