The development of teacher evaluation systems is generating a lot of controversyaround the country. Teachers in some states are very fearful of the effect these new systems might have on how they do their jobs or whether their employment will be at risk. Administrators are stressed about the time it takes to complete the process with each teacher. A leading Tennessee advocacy group, SCORE, prepared a study on that state's new system and recently released a report about the findings. Additionally, the Tennessee Department of Education, after significant input from stakeholders, presented a report to the legislature with suggested changes to the system. I highly recommend these reports to those of you who are considering, or might be in the future, creating a new teacher evaluation system.

For those who wonder whether we even need to be spending time on developing new evaluation systems I have an emphatic answer. Yes, we do! We need objective measurements to determine which teachers are doing a good job and which ones are not. We also must use these systems to drive professional development to help teachers grow and improve. Good teachers make it clear that they value the feedback they receive from evaluations and from people who observe their classroom practices. Lower-performing teachers, however, often believe they have been mistreated during an evaluation process. To ensure quality and effectiveness, evaluation systems must be fair and objective and based on multiple factors.

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