Teacher-Evaluation Logistics Challenge States

States seek technical help

By Stephen Sawchuk

Ed Week

Rounding the corner on the design of new teacher-evaluation plans, states and districts are beginning to wrestle with the significant technical and logistical hurdles for transforming their blueprints into reality.

In the coming months, more states—especially those that won grants through the $4 billion federal Race to the Top initiative—are expected to put out requests for proposals for such details as overhauls to the data systems that store student and teacher information; the provision of “value added” analyses of teacher performance; and the reporting and professional development that help teachers and principals use the information from the systems.

In sum, states and districts must construct integrated systems for teacher-performance management—no small challenge in a field in which few good examples exist.

“States and districts are going to need considerable amounts of technical expertise,” said Brian M. Stecher, the associate director of RAND Education at the Santa Monica-based RAND Corp., a nonprofit policy-research organization.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the marketplace of contractors, vendors, and providers that states must rely on to fulfill their plans is still evolving.

To give just one example, many of the technical experts on such elements as the statistical modeling of value-added teacher estimates don’t work for traditional education publishers or test companies, but for organizations now primarily known for research or program evaluation.

“It’s a very active conversation, I can tell you,” said Brian P. Gill, a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, a Princeton, N.J.-based organization.

Known for conducting large-scale, federally sponsored evaluations of education programs, Mathematica recently expanded into a technical-assistance role helping such partners as the District of Columbia and Pittsburgh school districts implement teacher-evaluation systems.

“We’re observing changes happening in the field, and we’re trying to figure out what our appropriate place is, where we can provide the most value,” Mr. Gill said.

As Race to the Top grants begin to mature, deadlines states have set in the teacher and leader sections of their plans are starting to bear down on them.

Ohio’s new teacher-evaluation system goes into effect next school year for its 26 participating districts. The state is still working out details of the student-growth component, officials there say.

Policy Momentum

Under Georgia’s plan, the state will likely put out a request for proposals this summer to secure a contractor to supply value-added estimates based on its state-test data to include in new teacher-evaluation systems.

And in February, the Florida education department awarded the publishing giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt a contract to craft model teacher- and leader-observation protocols based on the work of Douglas Reeves and Robert Marzano, two well known professional-development consultants, and to help school districts implement those models or locally designed alternatives.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt declined to disclose the contract’s worth, and the Florida education department did not respond to inquiries. But in any case, considerable money is at stake. Each of the 12 Race to the Top winners, save Massachusetts, is devoting more than half the state share of its grant to contractors. Of the four key areas of focus in the program, the teacher- and leadership-effectiveness piece is likely to make up the biggest portion of spending because of the large capacity-building needs in those areas.

The policy momentum for those activities extends far beyond the federal grant program, which was financed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Legislation overhauling state evaluation guidelines are pending in several statehouses; the renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act looms; and private philanthropies such as the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are also pouring in thousands of dollars to support changes to states’ and districts’ teacher-talent structures.

“The opportunity in Florida was unique because of the funding, and the mandate, and our capability to deliver something,” Dave R. West, the senior vice president of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Education Consulting Services, said of the company’s winning bid in that state. “Florida is a bellwether state, but all states are going to be interested in this kind of solution, in teacher and leader effectiveness.”

Building Systems

With money and policy prescriptions in hand, it’s easy to find reasons why states and districts are seeking outside expertise on these most complicated of issues.

Take value-added data, for instance. Even for those states that have experience measuring ...

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