Dive Brief:

• The new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) removes federal mandates around teacher qualifications and evaluations, and it's not yet clear what states will do in order to determine how well teachers are serving students.
• Though many states will likely create new guidelines, some, like New Mexico, have expressed a desire to stick with the old federal mandates, Education Week reports.
• Regardless of what states choose to do, Oklahoma State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister says that the primary focus of any evaluation system for teachers and principals must be on self-reflection, continuous improvement, and professional growth. 

Dive Insight:

Teacher evaluations are a sticky issue with a thorny history, largely due to the high stakes woven into them in recent years. By letting student test scores formally reflect how well teachers were doing their jobs, pressure to perform and avoid job losses and school closures grew. Ultimately, this gave some educators an incentive to increase scores and graduation rates by any means available to them, leading to cheating. In Atlanta, a high-profile cheating scandal resulted in nearly a dozen educators being found guilty of conspiringto falsify students’ test scores. Other states, like New York, have also battled similar issues.

Recommended Reading

Education Week: ESSA Loosens Reins on Teacher Evaluations, Qualifications