EVALUATING TEACHER PERFORMANCE IN THE UNITED STATES
Keywords:
education system, teachers evaluation polities, standards-based reform, teacherspractice, teachers performance,Abstract
Teaching is a complex task. It requires academic content knowledge, pedagogical
knowledge and skills, organizational skills, understanding of human development,
and interpersonal skills to engage with students, colleagues, and, in the United
States, increasingly diverse families. Given its complexity, its evaluation likely
needs to be multifaceted. This article first briefly presents the policy context for
teacher evaluation in the United States. It then examines policies under which
students’ scores from standardized tests have been the essential source of data to
evaluate teacher performance and describes how these evaluation systems
influence teachers’ classroom practice. Finally, it briefly considers evaluation
systems that may better reflect, inform, and support the complex task of teaching.
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